


The Story Done The Right Way

by LetsbeHonestItNeedToBeDifferent



Series: Frozen Soil [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Frontier, Digimon Tamers
Genre: BAMF Legendary Warriors, BAMF Shinya, BAMF Tomoki, Digital World was at war, Digivolution changes, Elemental Racsim, F/M, Frontier came before Adventure, Himi Tomoki-Centric, Kanbara Shinya-Centric, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Some fluffy scenes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-23 00:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 79,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23836096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetsbeHonestItNeedToBeDifferent/pseuds/LetsbeHonestItNeedToBeDifferent
Summary: “How could the Mistress tell us that we can't help the Digital World, when it is literally in our job description!?”Takuya hollered in his frustration.Its been 7 months since their time in the Digital World, The Legendary Warriors had returned home only to find that there were kids calling themselves Digidestined running around. It doesn't help that The Seven Great Demon Lords were plotting in the Digital World.Cross posting on Fanfiction.net
Relationships: Himi Tomoki/Kanbara Shinya, Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya, Kanbara Takuya/Orimoto Izumi | Zoe Orimoto, Takaishi Takeru | T.K. Takaishi/Yagami Hikari | Kari Kamiya
Series: Frozen Soil [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854931
Comments: 32
Kudos: 48





	1. Digi-Ever After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, Digimon Frontier is my FAVORITE season and I feel it was slept on and could've gotten better treatment. So here's my story this is my first so go easy on me. But i have been working on this story for about a year now. Leave a kudos and comment your theories and thoughts. I love feedback, Enjoy.

With the dying breath of the Ancient Warriors, the spirits were given to the Celestial Angles. Fire and Ice were given to Ophanimon. Wind, Thunder, and Light are given to Seraphimon. And Darkness, Water, Steel, Earth, and Wood were given to Cherubimon. But giving that many spirits to Cherubimon would turn out to not be a smart move in the future.

In the years passing the Elemental factions began to fall and crumble soon becoming a thing of the past, yet the element-specific areas stayed. Soon the only thing dividing Digimon was the constant Human Digimon vs Beast Digimon battles. Cherubimon started to suspect the other two Celestial Angels to be plotting against him.

He then turned evil and used the spirits at his disposal to start a war. Due to this war, the spirits in the hands of Ophanimon and Seraphimon were spread across the Digital World, returning to where the original Warriors dwelt. Seraphimon was imprisoned in a cocoon of energy while Ophanimon was forced into hiding.

Calling upon the children of another world which was newly discovered, Ophanimon saw this as a chance to save the Digital World. The children were all sent to the train station where they -were sent to a new and mysterious world. Ophanimon was only looking for the children who would find the Warrior Spirits and save the Digital World. 5 children who represent their Warrior counterparts down to their very core. Ophanimon made the right choice depending on the children and through countless battles, mistakes, accidents, and triumphs the children prevailed even gaining a new member who was tied to the Warriors. Then as predestined, the children defeated Lucemon just as the ancient Digimon did before them.

Then the children were allowed to return home, but when they got back they realized they had changed. They were no longer human. They could control the elements of their spirit, they had enhanced abilities and they retained all the training as a warrior. However, they could tell no one what they learned or what they experienced. They could only confide in each other.

It was 7 months later that the Digital World showed up again. The Warriors thought it would’ve been their chance to go back, to see their spirits, their partners, again. Unfortunately, Ophanimon had contacted the Warriors and told them about a new evil in the Digital World, but they would not be needed to help the Digital World. The Warriors decided to have a meeting at the local Shibuya Park to discuss the situation. They decide to meet up under a big tree. Like always Kouji and Kouichi were the first to arrive.

“How much you wanna bet Takuya’s not last to the meeting?” Kouji glanced at his twin brother.

After their time in the Digital World, their relationship had gotten 10x better, well that was considering before it was nonexistent. Kouichi kept his hair short and changed his clothes to more of a grey and black get up. The most surprising bit though was his new leather jacket. On the other hand, Kouji went more with white that almost seemed to glow with blue accents.

“I would bet nothing as we both know that would be a losing bet.” Koichi replied from the shade of the tree.

“Whats up, Ying Yang Twins.” Zoe called waving her hand from a short distance away.

After the Digital World, Zoe came out of her shell and started making more friends but she will always have her warrior friends. She let go of her pink hat and now went with a butterfly clip in her hair. She wore a pink crop top that showed her midriff, with skinny jeans that still allowed her to move around if the need be.

“Hey Zoe” came from Kouichi but Kouji was too busy hiding his blush. “Zoey, what’s up with the outfit?”

Kouji couldn’t even look her in the eye. “What, I can’t look cute?” Zoey put on a pouty face.

Kouji began to stutter, “Y-y-yeah you can.”

She just shook her head as if to say ‘Yeah that’s what I thought’.

“WELL IT LOOKS LIKE THE GANGS ALMOST BACK TOGETHER” They all turn to look at a now very muscular J.P give a thunderous howl. Also, who was running to give the three of them, who were quite tiny, a group hug. “Oh, I missed you guys.”

He didn’t notice that he was cutting off their air supply. After releasing the three from his hold, he spoke again. “Hey, where’s Mr. Strategist?”

They all look up at that statement seeing that Tommy was the one who always got mad when they were late. They start to look for their youngest member who has grown since their time in the Digital World, figuratively and literally. They see a head full of brown hair running at full speed almost as if he had jet propulsion. He was indeed using jet propulsion as his hands were behind his back as fire was shooting out of them. They all screamed as he came to a stop right in front of them.

“Takuya what the hell. You could’ve killed us and why are you using your powers in public!?” Kouichi was shocked, to say the least.

“Well, I thought, hey I’m always the last one to things I would try to be the first to this one, but I guess it didn’t work since I’m last again.”

He sullen at the fact his idea didn’t work. “Actually…” Zoe began to tell Takuya.

“I should’ve bet some money, damn it!” Kouichi cursed to the air. Kouji was laughing since his brother rarely shows most emotions other than a non-biased expression. At that moment they saw the person they were looking for. Tommy looked as if he was gliding on the pavement. This should be impossible, but that word has been thrown out their vocabulary since they stepped foot in the Digital World. Like Zoe he let his big orange hat go, instead, he now wears a green headband to keep his grown-out hair away from his face. He wears ripped jeans now with two white bears on the left leg. He kept his white t-shirt with the green trim but he now sports a green fingerless glove on his right hand.

“Hey guys, so so so so sorry I’m late, you guys know this, like, never happens, but Shinya is very manipulative. I told him I had this meeting today but he thought it would be a good idea to stay up all night playing video games. Then somehow he turned off all my alarms so I just woke up like 2 minutes ago.” He somehow said in-between breaths and still sounded coherent.

“Why would you listen to him?” Takuya looked at Tommy in disbelief. “Well, you know that look he pulls that he uses to get his way all the time,”

Takuya nodded his head. “Yeah he used that on the whole Himi household and everyone was under his spell.” Takuya could only laugh.

Though the other Warriors were confused. “Who’s Shinya?” Takuya and Tommy looked at each other thinking of how to describe him. “Well to put it simply he’s my brother and Tommy’s best friend.” The warriors only nodded their heads.

“Who would’ve thought that Takuya’s younger brother and Tommy would be best friends?” Zoey as if she was thinking about the possibilities. “Yeah he’s a cool guy and almost nothing like his brother, I’m sure you’ll meet him one day or another.” Tommy assured the others.

“But now that we’re all here let's commence this meeting about what Lady Ophanimon told us. They all sat in the shade of the tree, in something that resembled a circle. Being the ‘leader’ he is, Takuya started the meeting in only a way he can. “How could the Mistress tell us that we can't help the Digital World, when it is literally in our job description!?”Takuya hollered in his frustration.

“Takuya, calm down Lady Ophanimon must have a reason for not allowing us to go.” Tommy touched a cold hand to Takuya’s almost fiery back to stop the boy from combusting into flames in public and drawing too much attention to them.

“Yeah, Taki let's be real we all miss the Spirits, but maybe Lady Ophanimon just wants us to have something that symbolizes a normal life after the literal war we've been through.” J.P always being the jokester he is, he tries to brighten the mood of the group.

“But still, as much as it hurts me to say it, Takuya is right. Can we trust the protection of the digital world to some people we don’t even know.” Kouji was hesitant to agree but he did.

“Aww thanks, Kouji, you do like me.” Takuya teased. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Kouji said with no particular venom.

“Do you think we should just wait it out and see what happens?” Kouichi spoke up. “It seems like the best option. We should help any way we can, and Lady Ophanimon forbid, somehow the battle is taken to this world, we can assist these new children.”

To Tommy’s words of wisdom, the others nodded. With that, the meeting was adjourned. And to the surprise of the Warriors, they were never called upon even as they saw Digimon becoming news in Odaiba, dubbed “monster sightings”, the Warriors just sat back and watched. Neither did she when 4 years later when Digimon started showing up world wide.

The Himi Hous, 4 years later.

“Thank you Mrs. Himi, your cooking is amazing as always.” Shinya sweet talked the residents of the Himi house as always.

“Aw, thank you Shinya dear, but I was just doing something simple.” The matriarch of the Himi household was blushing by the compliment.

“Would you like help with the dishes afterward?” Shinya asked.

“Oh no dear I couldn't ask you to do that, you're a guest in my home.” Shinya nodded.

Yutaka leaned over to his brother Tommy. “Why can’t you be more like your friend?” Tommy looked at his older brother. “We’re friends because we're different not because we’re the same.”

After dinner Shinya and Tommy went upstairs to play videogames. “Hey Tommy have you heard the news? All those strange monster sightings?”

Tommy knew this conversation was bound to happen sooner or later. Seeing as Digimon have been appearing in the news for a while now. The warriors have been doing some investigating over the years since Ophanimon still hasn't contacted them. However right now Tommy had a different problem to deal with. “Fake News. You shouldn't believe everything you see on TV you know.” Tommy was trying to get Shinya off the trail of Digimon.

“Really? I mean can all those people really be crazy though?” The one thing Shinya and his brother have alike are their unquestionable persistence.

“I think it's fake, but you should focus more on the video game Shinya.” As if on cue Tommy blew up Shinya’s warship. “Aw, not again, wow Tommy you’re really good at video games.”

Tommy could only grin. “Yeah, more than you could know.” He reminisced on the way he got his beast spirit. “Well i'm tired, i'm going to bed” Tommy went to sleep and not soon after so did Shinya.

Shinya soon began to snore, also a trait he and his brother share. However,before he could dwell on the fact his Digivice went off. Tommy quickly went to silence it. “Dammit, hopefully Shinya didn't hear that.” Tommy looked over at his friend, he was still snoring. After Tommy was sure of it he began to make his escape. Unbeknownst to him a rustling could be heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what did you guys think? Did Shinya hear Tommy? Find out next time on TSDTRW. Leave a comment or a kud


	2. Shinya Kanbara Takes The Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The warriors have a meeting, Someone interrupts, The plot thickens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't wait to post another chapter so here is part 2. I'm up to 30 pages right now so I'll probably update every other day or i might update two days a week with longer chapters.

Tommy used his new found Warrior abilities to make his way over rooftops to the Kanbara house. Using his elemental ice powers to make an essential straight bee line to the Kanbara house. He was always one for being tactile and efficient. As he came closer to the residence he saw his fellow warriors. Feeling a little mischievous, he decides to scare his friends.

Back in the Digital World, for a short time Tommy and Kouichi had trained under some Ninjamon, for a rather um, questionable mission, but apart from that left them with some cool ninja moves. Like for one, erasing one's presence.

“Can you believe it the world is literally being flooded with Digimon and Ophanimon hasn’t contacted us once?” J.P asked the group.

“Yeah no kidding, I called a girl I used to know from Italy and they’re over there too.” Zoe was starting to get worried.

“To be honest with you guys I'm sure someone has it handled.” Kouji said, already expecting the looks of disbelief, which he indeed did get.

“I can kinda see your point, but maybe that's because I'm your brother, all these digimon showing up but still no incidents or casualties? I guess these new digidestined must be doing _something_ right.” Kouichi was sure to put emphasis on something. The group could tell he didn't see the need for the new Digidestined. Over the course of their investigation the warriors found signs of a new group of chosen children. Though they never actually saw any of them, always missing them by a slim margin. 

Tommy took this chance to spring upon the unsuspecting group. The Warriors yelped in surprise. “Ha, you guys should see the looks on your faces.” The noise caused Takuya to come out of his house. “About time you guys showed up I've been waiting. “OK OK Mr. Leader” The warriors went inside the home to have another meeting. But down the block someone had other plans.

“Why do I feel like I'm sneaking into my own house?” Shinya sighed, as he walked up to his front door.

"So we all know why were here so lets get this thing started. Its time to get some answers." As Tommy was going to call Lady Ophanimon, the door suddenly burst open.

Shinya was standing at the doorway looking calmly at the Warriors, but more specifically, Takuya and Tommy. “Yeah time to get some answers indeed.” Shinya seemed to display no type of emotion, almost a calm fury.

“Shinya, there are some things you just shouldn’t know about, and it would be better if you didn’t.” Takuya was trying to divert his attention away from the possibility of being wrapped up in this.

Shinya only looked at Tommy, his best friend and the person he trusts the most. “Tommy.” Tommy looked from Shinya to Takuya and back to Shinya. If he told Shinya the truth he would be exposing his best friend to the Digital World and all the hardship that goes with it. However he must have heard a lot of the conversation already, and he already asked about the monster sightings. “Shinya, let’s have a chat,” he turned back to the group “We’ll be back in a minute.” Tommy took a hold of Shinya’s hand and dashed out the house.

“So that was Shinya, didn’t think we would meet him like this.” Kouichi broke the silence in the room. “Tommy better make the right choice.” The eerie way Takuya delivered the sentence, the message rang loud and clear. The smoke coming out of his ears didn't help either.

Tommy and Shinya arrived at the park and sat on the swing set. “What is so important that you guys have to hide it from me?” Shinya looked at his feet as he swung back and forth in small motions. “It's not that we don’t want to tell you, it’s just that once you know you can’t unknow and if someone sees you fit for that something we can’t tell you about then you will be thrust into turmoil, trials, obstacles all stuff that your brother doesn’t want you to go through. “ Tommy was trying to explain it to him in a way that wouldn’t reveal too much.

“And what about you, Tommy, what do you think is the best thing to do.” Tommy looked at Shinya and told him the honest truth.

“I think that the moment you heard our conversation you became a part of this, and I fear that you will have to go through what we did. So first I want to say I’m sorry for dragging you into this, second I going to tell you everything, and third I want you to pinky promise me that now and in the future to never do anything stupid and reckless and always have my back and know that I will have yours.” Shinya gave Tommy a smile and held out his pinky. Tommy took his pinky and then the sacred promise was complete.

Tommy then began to tell Shinya everything. From the text to the cellphone to fighting Lucemon to the Myotismon and Apocalymon incident 3 years ago. He explained to him the recent digimon news and the new chosen group of children. “So you guys have been holding on to this for almost 4 years?”

Tommy gave him a nod. “Since now you know, you probably have questions.”

Shinya thought about it for a second. Did he have questions? Hell yeah he did. "So, those monster sightings were all true? Every time you cancelled a plan was to do warrior stuff? You said you guys gained powers? What can you do?" Tommy chuckled at the curious nature of his friend.

"Yes all those 'monster sightings' were actually digimon dispersed from the digital world. Not every time but mostly yeah, sorry about that. I have the powers over ice." Tommy was pretty sure he covered everything Shinya asked. And to show Shinya some of his powers, Tommy made a gun construct and shot him with a snowball. 

"Ah, Tommy damn that cold." Shinya feel off the swing as he tried to get the snow off of him and get warm.

Well now that he had his questions answer he wondered where to go from here. Well, Tommy was still Tommy so he guessed the only question was. “So am I getting a spirit?’ Shinya gave Tommy a similar grin that only a Kanbara could pull off. “Well, I think it’s time to get back.” Shinya nodded. “Race ya?” “Oh you’re so on.” The boys ran all the way back to the house. Once they got back they were both out of breath. They got upstairs and went to face the music.

“Tommy, Shinya, you guys are back.” Zoe seemed eager to know how the conversation went. “Shinya is now part of the plan.” Tommy said it confidently but on the inside he was nervous about how Takuya would react. “Tommy, I thought you of all people would understand why I didn’t want Shinya to know about the Digital world and Digimon.” Takuya seems more disappointed than anything. “Takuya you’re right but that’s also why I told him. Think about it, if Shinya has been catching on to our weird behaviors, he is a Kanbara you know better than most. If he wants to find something out, he will. So would you rather he be exposed to Digimon in a controlled environment or a dangerous one? If one of the higher powers of the digital world saw fit for Shinya to be a Digidestined or hell even a Warrior it would be best for him to be informed of what he would be a part of than be searching for something and get himself into trouble.” Takuya agreed with Tommy’s logic but that was still his little brother.

“Ok, you’re right Tommy but what if he gets hurt?” Tommy snapped his head to Takuya. “He won’t get hurt because he’s sticking by my side, he is now my responsibility, as his best friend and the one who dragged him into this mess.” Takuya seemed satisfied after that. During the argument Shinya was blushing at the thought of Tommy claiming him as his responsibility.

“Hey Shinya, come here” Zoe patted the spot next to her. “So what do you think of all the stuff Tommy told you?” “I think that maybe, it would be cool to be a Warrior like you guys, cause all Tommy talked about was how great you guys are.” Zoe, Kouichi, Kouji, and J.P looked at their youngest and thought about what Shinya told them. “He really thinks we’re that great?” Kouichi said in a small voice. “He must have been humble then because if anything it’s him and Takuya who saved our butts in the digital world the most.”

Kouji would hate to admit it but it was true. “Guys now that that is settled can I call Lady Ophanimon to start asking for answers? Tommy pressed a button on his phone and Lady Ophanimon appeared as a hologram in the middle of the room. “Yes Tommy?” “Lady Ophanimon I come to you with a favor.” She looked down at Tommy

“Yes, my warrior?” “If I may be so brass, I ask that you post as a-“

“I already know of your plans, young one. You plan to go to school with these Digidestined.” Tommy looked up in shock.

“I will post as this recruiter lady or whatever, but only because in doing so you have found a suitable host for Earth.” The whole room gasped at what Lady Ophanimon was hinting at.

“Oh no you cannot be serious.” Takuya seemed as though he would faint.

“Oh no you cannot be serious.” Shinya said the same thing but way more excited.

“Yes, Shinya Kanbara, out of the four spirits of Water, Steel, Wood, and Earth. Earth was the only one to have found a human partner. The now purified spirits of earth shall be your guides in the near future so I suggest my warriors train you in the way of such beings.” Ophanimon gave Shinya a small smile.

"So that means I get to be a warrior just like you guys, alright.” Shinya pumped his fist in the air. Shinya’s cell phone began to beep and glow in his pocket. When he took it out it transformed into a brown D-Tector. “Your Spirits are already in the D-Tector young Shinya but you must first bond with them before you can digivolve.”

“Tommy, you better pray to the digital gods that my brother doesn’t get killed.” Takuya glared at the boy. Tommy would say he was scared but he faced much worse. Takuya will learn to forgive him later.

Lady Ophanimon was on the verge of leaving when her monitor beeped. Lady Ophanimon turned toward the Warriors. "My Warriors, it seems that I have found something problematic." The Warriors look at each other, Lady Ophanimon's face had the slightest formation of a frown. "It is a shame that I have such news for you."

This caught the Warriors’ attention, Lady Ophanimon had never really shown emotion as clearly as she is now. "I fear that some of Digital World's most evil Digimon have begun to make their moves. I'm positive you remember Lucemon?" All the warriors except for Shinya tightened up.

"Lucemon was not alone in his endeavors. He was a part of a Digimon group known as The Seven Great Demon Lords. I believe that one of these Demon Lords was the mastermind behind a certain boy Ken Ichijoji." The Warriors were speechless and in shock.

"Wait so you’re saying all this time Lucemon had comrades who were in hiding or whatever and had been cooking up countless schemes and you’re only just telling us now!” Zoe said frantically. J.P went over to calm down the Warrior of Wind. If the atmosphere before was heavy it was straight crushing now.

“Wait I’ve heard of this Ken Ichijoji apparently he was some super genius that was so smart he gave his teachers homework.” Tommy explained to the group. “Wow that's crazy, it's said He’s moving to Tsukishima General High School in Odaiba.” Someone read off an article “So what do we do now?” Shinya, who was one of the most calm, although that because he didn't really know what the Digital Worlds was like, asked the room.

Tommy sat in an almost serene state, as he began to think. Takuya tried to assure his fellow Warriors. “Guys it doesn't matter who we’re up against we’re the fucking LEGENDARY Warriors, they don't call us that for nothing.” That made the group laugh at their leader’s antics. “Speaking of Legendary Warriors, you need your spirits to digivolve right?” Lady Ophanimon gave a light smile. Zoe shot up “Wait, you're giving us our spirits? non c'è modo” The warriors face all lit up with the thoughts of seeing their partners again. “Yes children, how else will you children prepare for the upcoming battles?” 6 balls of lights in different colors appeared in front of Lady Ophanimon. Red, white, black, cyan, pink, and yellow. “Here my children may you be successful in your journey.” The balls of light went to their respective children and into their D-tectors. Each one finally feeling that the other parts of them have been given back to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again thanks for reading my story, leave a comment and/or a kudos. Next chapter we finally get some action.


	3. What's So Bad About Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what training was like for the Warriors in the Digital World. Shinya gets to show off his new powers. Lore and power system elements are kinda discussed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fight scene was made longer, but it is my first so I hope I get better with time.

Now that the warriors felt complete again, Tommy spoke up. “I think we should focus our energy on training for our fight with the Demon Lords in the far future.”

The Warriors let out groans of frustration. Shinya and Lady Ophanimon looked at each other with a look of confusion. “What's so bad about training?” Shinya titled his head in confusion. 

“I do agree with the young Warrior of Earth, training should not normally cause such a reaction.” The Warriors all shared a look of hollow emptiness. 

“You would be right if this was only regular training, but…” Takuya gulped, he didn’t want to finish his sentence. 

“This is training from hell, a cold and lifeless hell.” Zoe shuddered. 

“Oh guys, it's not THAT bad.” Tommy scoffed at his over dramatic friends. 

“You do realize, you made each of us train in our respective element right?” Kouji still remembers the chamber of complete blinding white light. Blades made of pure light were shot at him at the highest speeds. The blades weren’t the problem, it was the fact that they blended into the walls of the chamber, so he had to “sense” the blades more than see them. “I'm pretty sure I was blind for a whole day!” 

Tommy nodded. “Yes, you were, BUT, thanks to my training your senses and control over your element became ten times stronger.” Lady Ophanimon and Shinya look at the Warriors in disbelief. 

“Oh let’s not even begin to talk about my training.” Zoe said with a hint of annoyance. 

“Ok, Zoe you know what, I actually feel pretty bad about yours.” Tommy at least had the decency to look ashamed. 

“Good, cause you threw me off one of the tallest buildings in Metal Town.” Shinya and Lady Ophanimon looked appalled at the Warrior of Ice. “YOU DID WHAT?!” They both screamed in unison. 

“Zo, if it wasn’t high enough then your flight or fight response wouldn’t have kicked in and you wouldn’t have that ‘calm before the storm’ kinda rage when i pushed you off unexpectedly.” Tommy explained with an offhanded shrug, still not thinking the training was anything too drastic. 

“Tommy that’s cold even for you.” Shinya giggled at his friend. “What did you make the others do?” Lady Ophanimon almost didn’t want to ask. 

“Guess I’ll tell you mine.” J.P raised his hand. “He made me a conductor for a battery for 3 hours.” 

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Shinya said.

“Did I forget to mention that the battery gave power to the whole town?” Shinya shuddered. “That must’ve taken a lot of energy” J.P gave him a look as to say ‘Exactly’. 

“Mine wasn’t that bad. He just shut me in a dark room for a few minutes.” Shinya got a little bit of the hope back for his best friend. 

The Warriors looked at Kouichi weird. “Um, bro, you were in there for a full 24 hours, even Tommy got scared for a second.” Tommy nodded his head. “Yeah, but when you said that it only felt like a few minutes I knew that you were already in tune with your element.” 

And Shinya’s hope was gone again. “Well, that just leaves my brother.” 

The warriors looked at Takuya. “A giant furnace.”

“Come again?” Takuya looked at his brother with a dead, hollow look in his eyes. 

“A. Giant. Furnace.” 

Tommy took over before Shinya got even more confused. “Takuya didn’t need training if anything I was just playing a prank on him.” 

Yep, all hope Shinya had was gone. Not a single drop left. “You made my brother get into a giant furnace?” Shinya looked at his best friend in disbelief. 

“Again, I knew no harm would come to him so it was all in good fun.” Shinya gave him a look. 

“ All I did was tell him he would get Zoe’s attention if he could sit in a giant furnace for 30 minutes straight.” 

Shinya looked at his brother in disbelief, “I'm not even gonna ask why you would even need to have Zoe's attention in the first place.”

Takuya only looked away with a slight blush on his face. “I was a different person back then.” 

“Well there's your explanation on training, Lady Ophanimon don’t you have some phone calls to make?” Lady Ophanimon nodded and left after that. The hologram faded out and Tommy but his D-Tector away. Tommy turned toward Shinya. “Now what should I put you through?” 

Shinya cringed back at the look his friend was giving him. “Quite the sadist, that friend of yours.” J.P joked toward Shinya. 

Shinya gulped, “Go easy on me please.” Tommy sighed, “Unfortunately we don't have that luxury. You will be doing combat with the twins and elemental tuning with me.” 

Since it was nighttime the Warriors decided to go back home and sleep, deciding to start Shinya’s combat training tomorrow in the forest area of Shibuya Park. As the next day came and the training session drew closer Shinya was beginning to feel a little nervous. 

“Tommy, I'm getting butterflies in my stomach.” Tommy chuckled at his best friend's nervousness. 

“You’ll be fine. You were chosen for a reason, if they didn't think you could handle it the Spirits wouldn't have chosen you.” Tommy placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Now come on, the twins are waiting.” The pair walked down the path to the place chosen for their training, however they only saw Kouji. Kouji was standing in a small clearing with a sword construct in his hand. It seems as though he was doing some training of his own before Shinya’s. Kouji noticed the pair entering the clearing. “Oh, good we can start now, Shinya come stand in front of me.” 

Shinya gave Tommy one last look as he gave a nod of confirmation. Shinya studied the twin of light. He wore a sleeveless white t-shirt and black shorts, with his hair tied up in a messy bun. He had a coat of sweat on his body from his earlier practice, unusually he did not show any signs of labored breathing. “Um, I thought this was training with you and your brother?” Shinya cocked his head to the side. 

Suddenly he felt a slight presence in the form of vibrations very close to him. He whipped his head around to come face to face with the other twin. “Oh wow, for a beginner you have nice spacial awareness. Most digimon and people alike notice too late.” Kouichi made a noise of approval. 

“First rule of combat: Always be aware of your surroundings. Make sure to notice all your enemies, those seen and unseen.” Shinya nodded . Kouichi came to stand by his brother. “Ok, for your first lesson all you have to do is land a hit on us.” Kouji stated.   
Shinya couldn't help but laugh. “Isn’t that a little too cliched, I mean it's just like every shounen anime I've seen.” Kouichi shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe so, but it still holds its purpose. The lesson ends when you tag us.” Shinya was determined, how hard could it be? “Ok then, Lets to the damn thing.” Shinya rushed forward using his soccer experience to get the jump on the twins. They didn't expect him to just go for it. They both jumped out of the way in different directions, Kouji to the left and Kouichi to the right. Kouji made a small sword of light, while Kouichi stuck to the shadows. Shinya began to focus on Kouji, because as far as he knew he couldn't blend into the shadows. Shinya thought of a small strategy to distract Kouji then tag him. He picked up a nearby rock and threw it at Kouji, following right behind the stone.   
“You think a rock would hit me?” Kouji slashed the rock out of the air, easily seeing Shinya’s plan he brung his blade back as he jumped to the right using the momentum to redirect Shinya. Shinya who was flustered stumbled, seeing that Kouji was a bust he went for his brother who was still by the shadow.  


He leaped toward the Warrior of Darkness and he was actually quite close, sadly Kouichi melted into the shadow appearing right behind him. “You're gonna have to be quicker than that Shinya.” It went like that for another 30 minutes, Tommy was beginning to wonder if Shinya would actually tag the twins. Shinya was thinking the same thing, “Why won't you guys just stand still, how am I supposed to be a Warrior if i can't even win at a game of tag.” Shinya’s frustrations seemed to unlock something in him. The ground around him began to shake. 

The twins looked at each other unsure of what was going on. “Shinya, it's OK if you want to take a break.” Kouji said even though he knew the answer would be no. “You know I can't do that, you heard Tommy, we only have a matter of time before we have to face the Demon Lords. I have to get stronger if I want to protect the people I care about.” As if answering Shinya’s need to be stronger, the ground stopped shaking and a huge mallet made out of the earth shot up next to him. “Wha-Whats this?” Shinya didn't know what was happening, but suddenly the name ‘JishinTsuchi’ came to mind. 

The three other Warriors were in shock, only his first day as a Warrior and he had already started using his element. Kouji turned his nose, “What's this? Shinya is starting to smell like one of us. Kouichi can you scan his Spirit Core?” Shinya was just plain confused now. “What do you mean I smell, I know I put deodorant on and what's a Spirit Core.” 

Tommy laughed at that. “No Shinya not like that,you see Kouji’s sense of smell has heightened due to his time in the Digi-world and Kouichi gained the ability to, in a sense, see people's core. Everyone's core is a layered representation of their being. A Warrior’s Spirit Core is layered differently than regular humans, the fusion of digimon with their human DNA causes a distinct aura that can be sensed. What's interesting is that you already show signs of tuning with your element Shinya. This is great, this means your elemental training needs to be adjusted.” Shinya didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Shinya picked up his new weapon and gave it a wide swing, seeing that it was surprisingly light. “Ok now that I got this, tagging you is going to be much easier.”

The twins got in defensive positions reading themselves. Instead of an attack however, Shinya jumped into the bushes with a new found resolve. He whispered to himself, “Lets see what I can do.”   
He circled around the twins so that he was behind them. He didn't expect to go unnoticed but that wasn't his plan anyway. He leaped out of the greenery swinging his mallet. He missed of course causing the twins to jump back. Not giving them a chance to react, using his new abilities he willed the earth to grab at their ankles. The twins were stuck in place. Shinya pumped his fist in the air. “Yeah, I did it.”

Though the celebration gave the twins time to break the hold of the earth. “Shinya, on the battlefield it is never wise to celebrate too early. That's how people get hurt.” Shinya hung his head, as he was sure that he had finally got the drop on the twins. 

This being a combat exercise, the twins decided to have some fun with Shinya. Kouichi teleported to the shade behind Shinya and summoned tendrils made of darkness to restrain him. Shinya yelped, “ Kouichi, what the hell, isn’t this what they do on the websites mom says Takuya shouldn't be on?” Kouji, who was going to use Shinya’s restraint as an opening, stopped in his tracks. The restraints also loosened up as Kouichi began to laugh uncontrollably.

“Wait, you can’t be serious, Takuya looks at that kinda stuff?” Kouji shook his head. Shinya saw that they let their guard down and attacked. He gripped JishinTsuchi breaking out of the tendrils and also tagging Kouichi. Not making the same mistake he trapped Kouji up to his neck in dirt. He walked toward Kouji and tagged him. “So does this mean we’re done?”

The twins smiled, “Wow, who knew Takuya’s younger brother would play dirty (no pun intended). Yet you did manage to tag us so, yes Shinya, we’re done.” Tommy went to his best friend and gave him a high five. 

“Good job on your first lesson Shinya, however this is just one of many I hope you know.” Shinya instantly deflated. “Wow this Warrior stuff is harder than it looks.” The group laughed. 

“I have a Kendo lesson I have to get to, I'll see you guys around.” Kouji ran off in the direction of the park. “Are we done for today or…” Shinya was looking to relax but it seems like he wouldn't get the chance. Tommy and Kouichi looked at each other with contemplative looks. 

“We might as well since it's not too dark and this is a good spot for it.” Kouichi suggested.

Tommy gave it a thought, Shinya just now unlocked his elemental prowess. Observing the training with an outside perspective, he could see that Shinya has raw potential as he has already formed a weapon and sensed Kouichi in shadows, but regardless they had no time to waste.

“Are you ready for some elemental training from an icy hell?” Tommy gave his friend a wide smile even the Cheshire Cat would envy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter we finally meet the Purified Human Spirit of Earth. With more plot points and lore being expanded on.
> 
> Oh and for those that were wondering JishinTschui is translated directly into Confident Soil, it will make more sense in coming chapters.


	4. Baboongamon: What a Dick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "To put it simply he’s a prideful bastard." - Lowemon Human Spirit Of Darkness. Shinya meets his human spirit, while also getting deeper insight to the Digital World.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I like this scene better than the last one. Again Kudos and Comments are welcomed and appreciated. Feedback is what helps me make the story better for you.

After the combat training the boys were sitting in a triangle shape. “Ok, so Shinya, what we know about the Warrior of Earth, albeit he was evil at the time, is that his skill set was for a lack of a better term earth based. He loved to borrow into the earth making pitfalls, he used his mallet to push the earth upwards, and could gather it to bulken up his defenses.” Koichi explained it to Shinya.

“I'm gonna be able to do all that?” Shinya asked.

“That’s what we are assuming, yes.” Tommy answered.

“But since we don’t have any more knowledge it would be best for us to go to your spirits for help.” Shinya could hardly contain his excitement.

“Wow, I can’t wait to meet them, what were they like?” Tommy and Koichi both looked away in an act of avoidance.

“Come on guys it can't be that bad.” Sinya pushed.

Koichi put his hand on his face. “Well as his former teammate, I can say with no shame that your spirits have the mental capacity of a 5 year old.”

Shinya’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding right?”

Tommy shook his head, “Unfortunately no he is not, but then again these were the cursed spirits of earth so they might be polar opposites.” 

Shinya let out a sigh of relief. “So how do we contact them?”

Tommy and Koichi pull out their D-Tectors. Getting the hint Shinya pulled out his. Tommy and Koichi’s D-tectors lit up as their spirits became holograms. Kumamon and Lowemon sprang to life. Kumamon looked around, “Tommy buddy what’s going on?”

He looked around to see Shinya. “Oh you must be Shinya, hi I’m Kumamon, Tommy’s human warrior spirit.”

Shinya looked at the polar bear creature. “Wow, I didn't expect you to be so small”

Kumamon put his hand on his chest in the classic ‘You wound me’ pose. “It's not my fault all the height went to Korikakumon.” Lowemon gave a snort. “I’m pretty sure that's not how that works Kumamon.” Shinya turned to the man lined with lion armor.

“Wait, so I know there's two spirits for each, Human and Beast, but how is Kumamon a Human spirit when he isn't human looking?” The two pairs busted out laughing, to Shinya’s annoyance. “Hey I’m serious.”

Koichi’s laughter died down a bit. “We know, that’s what makes it funnier. You haven't met our other spirits yet, but Kumamon is definitely the  _ most _ Human spirit of Ice.”

Now Shinya was even more curious. “Well that was enough about our spirits, it's time to contact yours.” Tommy tried to reign the conversation back in. “Have either of you met the purified spirits of Earth?” Lowemon perked up, but Kumamon just shook his head. “I haven’t met them but I think Lowemon has.” 

Everyone turned towards Lowemon not knowing what to expect. “Kumamon is right. I have met them. The Human spirit of Earth is Baboongamon, he was selected to be the warrior of Earth instead of coming from the Ancient’s Code.” The group was confused. “What do you mean he wasn’t made from the Ancient’s Code?” Tommy was especially confused as it was common knowledge the spirits were made directly from the Ancient digimon, and poor Shinya didn't get anything past ‘Acient’s Code’.

“As you know, each warrior spirit is the Ancient code split into two digimon. However the Ancient Warrior Digimon AncientQuakemon was very prideful, he went behind the backs of the others, and instead of splitting his power into two different digimon he held a contest to see who would be fit to hold the title.” Everyone seemed to understand so far so Lowemon continued the story.

“Baboongamon was all about power and strength. Honestly wasn’t one of the best digimon, but he won the tournament and proved his strength to AncientQuakemon. So Ancient Quakemon gave the title of the Human Spirit of Earth to Baboongamon with a 30% of the Ancient’s Code being added to his programming. Being a digimon who got a place among ‘Digital Gods’ Baboongamon gained a prideful attitude and an egotistical demeanor. To put it simply he’s a prideful bastard. Even though he was given some Ancient Code he did not come directly from the code. '' Lowemon finished his story with a huff. 

The others just looked at the lion warrior in disbelief. Shinya most of all. “But I thought the Warriors were supposed to be fighting for peace and justice in the digital world. He doesn't sound like a warrior to me.” Shinya just couldn't believe it. 

Tommy gave a knowing sigh. “Well, in a sense your right. The legendary warriors protect the digital world from evil. That doesn't mean they are all nice digimon. They each have their own sets of values and how they would run their select factions. Seeing as there were ten there was bound to be differences.”

Shinya shook his head with a new resolve. “It doesn't matter how he became the warrior spirit, he’s my partner now and we’ll do our best to protect the Digital World.” In almost as a response Shinya’s D-tector began to glow and envelop the group. “That's big talk coming from such a weak human.”

Shinya opened his eyes to see a throne made out of rock before him. He seemed to be in a cave lined with torches. The air was a bit stuffy almost as if the cave was underground. He quickly saw that he was the only one that was transported there. 

Shinya found the voice that insulted him. On the throne sat, well, more lounged, Baboongamon. He was a large rock encrusted brown baboon. His hands and feet were covered with rocks, he even had a vizor made of the stuff. Shinya couldn’t believe he actually saw anything. “You seem to think I accept you as the rightful bearer of the Spirits of Earth?”

Shinya glared at the digimon in question. “Um I know I’m new and all but, I wouldn't have received the D-tector if I wasn’t meant to.”

Baboongamon sat up at the challenge. “Oh, that! No, the Ancient Code saw you fit, not me. Look at you, you couldn't even throw a punch, much less save the Digital World.”

Something in Shinya began to stir. “You do realize that not everything has to be resolved with violence?.”

Shinya began to walk toward Baboongamon. Baboongamon looked only mildly interested. “I know you were told my story. I beat every digimon in the Earth Faction,obviously everything can be solved by violence.”

Shinya stopped, that something Shinya was feeling was beginning to heat up. “If you try to resort to violence every single time, there are bound to be times the other party won't want to fight.”

Baboongamon raised an eyebrow, “Then that's gonna be a hard day for that other party, listen closely Shinya-boy, THE WEAK DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE.” 

Yup, I think I know what that something is. It was boiling rage like molten lava. “Wow, my human spirit is nothing but a bully. It's weird you know, I’ve always wanted to beat a bully, and now I can with no consequences.” The earth surrounding Shinya began to respond to his heightened emotions, as if reading his mind, pieces of rock and stone began to gather around Shinya’s fist.

Ever so slightly you could see Baboongamon make a face. Seemingly gone, Gokumon lifted a finger and a wall of rocks was erected in front of Shinya. “That won't stop me Baboongamon, I need your power to protect those closest to me. And nothing is gonna get in my way.” Shinya punched the wall to bits as he continued toward Baboongamon. 

Baboongamon, still not taking Shinya’s resolve, seriously erected more walls. “Really, it's funny that you think YOU can beat ME, THE MIGHTY Baboongamon!” Baboongamon howled at the thought. 

Shinya still did not deter from his course. “I will not fall behind. Tommy and everyone else are counting on me. I. WILL. NOT. BE. A. BURDEN!” He conjured up more rocks to his other fist. He kept plowing through the walls not letting Baboongamon stop him. “Ok so you can throw a punch or two but what of it? Are you ready to take a life if need be?” 

Baboongamon finally got off the throne in a sign of acknowledgement. He banged on the ground with his rock covered fists and the resulting quake made a crater resembling a small arena. “As the Warrior of Earth, we have the power to bend the very Earth to our will.” As to prove his point he banged the ground again and the earth began to form three small statues. “These are Sunarizamon, relatively low in level, being only a rookie, but they are best known for their camouflage. Go Sunarizamon, give him hell.”

Baboongamon wanted to break the spirit of this tiny human. He has obviously never taken a life before, he probably doesn't have the balls to. Shinya was taken aback at first, he wasn't sure what to do. He was just trying to condemn Baboongamon for not having characteristics of a warrior and now here he was debating if he should destroy these digimon or not. “I will not fight those who don't want to fight, that's nothing more than being a bully” 

But apparently the Sunarizamon weren’t against fighting. Two of the Sunarizamons threw themselves at Shinya, while the other was throwing rocks as ranged support. Shinya raised his hands in an x in front of his face, blocking the attacks from the two Sunarizamon. 

Shinya was beginning to realise that he really needed more training. He felt sluggish and out of breath. Trying to put some distance between him and the attacking digimon he jumped back some feet. He summoned JishinTsuchi to keep the Sunarizamon at mallet length. Baboongamon returned to taunting his self-proclaimed partner. “Wow a mallet? As you can see your fists are the true weapons of Earth.” As if furthering his point, Baboongamon destroys the Sunarizamon giving range support with one punch, disintegrating the poor digimon.

“NOOOO!” Shinya screamed as the Sunarizamon was scattered into nothing but a few pebbles. “How could you?” Shinya used JishinTsuchi to vault himself over the Sunarizamon and send himself flying over to Baboongamon, attacking him with a flying kick.

Baboongamon blocked with his staff as he grinned wildly. “That’s it Shinya show me that wild rage I know you have in you!” Baboongamon slammed his fist together to create a shockwave, Shinya simply jumped back and rushed forward again. He gripped his mallet tighter as he swung downard, leaving a crater where Baboongamon once stood. “You have to be faster than that Shinya.” 

Flashing back to his earlier training with the twins, Shinya decided to try the same strategy. Commanding the Earth around Baboongamon to grab his heels. However this time he knew a simple hold wouldn’t work on the Spirit, so after the Earth hooked onto Baboongamon, Shinya added spikes that cut what should be Baboongamon’s ACL.

Baboongamon hissed in pain. “Now this is fun! Shinya come on and finish me!” Baboongamon purposely left himself open to attack knowing Shinya wouldn't go for it. Shinya to his own credit and did not take the bait initially. ‘Think back on everything. Baboongamon has been goading me this entire time. He was taking cheap shots, but never something too below the belt. Ok either my partner is really a huge ding or I'm being put in another shounen cliche.’ Then it finally clicked for Shinya.

Baboongamon was mistaken, Shinya swung JishinTsuchi in a wide arc, however he stopped short of actually hitting Baboongamon. “Come on Shinya, do it, END ME!” Baboongamon began to yell at Shinya.

Shinya just let out a sigh. “You can drop the act now, Baboongamon” Baboongamon’s face fell into a frown before he let out a hearty laugh. 

“Oh, Shinya, when did you figure it out? I was starting to have some fun.” Baboongamon somersaulted back to the throne and sat down regally. Shinya looked for the cut he knew Baboongamon should have on his foot. There was no sign of injury anywhere. He turned toward the area of the battle and found the remaining Sunarizamon were returned back to the earth. 

“Well when Tommy explained his experience in the digital world, he said digimon were made of data and when you ‘killed’ the Sunarizamon and when I cut your ACL, no data came spewing out like he said it would.” Baboongamon nodded.

“Yes those Sunarizamon were not real, they were just statues I made, the only reason they moved was because we are in the Spirit Realm” Shinya was confused.

“Tommy never said anything about a Spirit Realm.” Baboongamon further explained.

“The Spirit Realm is how we Spirits communicate with our partners, yet you normally wouldn't be able to access it yet seeing as you only just acquired your powers.” Shinya more or less understood.

“So was the whole not being worthy thing a lie too?” Baboongamon gave a smile that showed his fangs.

“I wasn't lying when I said that the Code saw you fit and I didn’t. I did want to test you but the battle and prodding was Tommy’s idea.” Shinya’s jaw dropped. 

“Um, I don’t think I heard that right? Did you just say that Tommy came up with everything that's happened in the past hour?” Shinya didn't know if he should be impressed or mad. “Wait but I thought the only person who met you was Lowemon and he didn’t really have that high of any opinion of you.”

Baboongamon could only laugh. “It is true that Lowemon is the only one to properly meet me in the past. However his telling of the story was biased. I do believe that the Digital World is no place for the weak, why else would there not be any in-training digimon. However that was a digital world of constant war, there is a new digital world now. With this new world I have begun to change, if ever slightly, I still love a good rumble every now and then but it does get a bit lonely being stuck in a cave with only statues to talk to.” 

Shinya found his logic rather flimsy, AND his monologue also rather cliche, but all he needed to know was that Baboongamon would lend him his strength. “So did I pass this test?”

Baboongamon raised up onto his feet and walked down to Shinya. “Shinya you, like Earth, stayed grounded in your principles and never waivered. Your values might be different from mine as I fight for me and you fight for others, but you have shown that I can trust my powers to you. Plus it's better than sitting around this cave!” Baboongamon laughed and reached out his hand as Shinya took it.

Thus Shinya bonded with his Human Spirit. Shinya’s D-tector began to glow and Baboongamon went in. Shinya held up the device as a hologram of Baboongamon appeared. “Oh, but gaining your Beast Spirit will be MUCH harder than this, that old dull ore is such a drama queen.” Shinya couldn't lie and say he wasn't at least a BIT curious to find out about his beast spirit. “Aren't Beast Spirits supposed to be 10x stronger than Human Spirits? Who even is my ‘purified’ beast spirit?” Baboongamon rolled his eyes. “So many questions, I will however leave you with a name. Gogmamon.” With that the hologram Baboongamon disappeared and Shinya’s fatigue finally caught up with him as his eyes closed and he drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so further explanation on the "Factions" that were mentioned. Each Ancient Warrior Digimon ruled over a different faction that correspond to their element. Think of where they found their spirits in the show as the ruins, or like whats left of what the factions once were. Ill be sure to dive deeper into it later down into the story cause the factions are gonna be plot heavy.


	5. What Do You Mean We Start School Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Shinya has had some training and acquired his Human spirit, his gets some unsettling news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update I went about editing and changing some of the previous chapters for continuity and timeline clarification. If you don't wanna go back it goes like.
> 
> Frontier came 7 months before the summer camp. Frontier lasted a year and a half, but at the end they returned to their original bodies. Adventure and Adventure 02 span over 4 years so there is a time skip but its not hon into detail mostly mentioned here and there. The story now goes into highschool. With everyone being present so some age things had to be messed with.
> 
> But as always kudos and comments are appreciated. Enjoy!!

Shinya opened his eyes to see Tommy and Kouichi hovering over him like you would see in the cartoons. “Hey Shinya seems like you met Baboongamon.”

The two sat back so Shinya could get up. As Shinya sat up he swung a rock cover fist at Tommy.

“Oh Shinya, you didn’t really expect to hit me did you?”

Shinya’s fist indeed did not hit Tommy, but instead hit a small ice shield.

Shinya only laughed, “It’s the thought that count right" Tommy began to laugh with him.

Kouichi watched the pair have their conversation. ‘What a pair.’ He thought to himself, ‘I wonder if the original Ice and Earth warriors had this kinda bond.’

Shinya looked at his rock covered fist. “It's weird really, one minute I'm playing videogames with Tommy the next I’m fighting my ‘reluctant’ partner Warrior Spirit. You never know where lifes gonna take you, you know?” Tommy nodded.

“Or how a train ride can change your life.”

“Or a fall down the stairs,” Kouichi added.

Shinya perked up at that statement. “I thought Tommy was joking when he said, you went to the digital world after you fell down the stairs.”

Kouichi laughed at Shinya's confusion, because to be honest he was saying the same thing when it happened to him all those years ago. “I told Cherubimon the same thing. I think i said something like ‘So, you expect ME to believe that the moment my head hit the floor, my LITERAL SPIRIT was whisked away to another dimension!’ I was pretty much in total disbelief.”

Shinya gave a nod of understanding. Shinya turned his attention back to Tommy. “So, that was my elemental training? You were right, not as bad as everyone made it seem.”

Tommy's smile grew, “SEE, I told you my plans aren’t anything too dramatic. But I think that's enough for today, seeing as we go back to school tomorrow.”

Shinya tilted his head at that. “Um we still have another week before school starts right?”

Kouichi gave a sigh. “Wow, he really is just like his brother.”

Tommy shook his head “You don’t know the half of it, Shinya you do know that today is the 6th right?”

Shinya looked shocked at the implication that his break was over. “That can't be true!”

Shinya shot his hands to ruffle his hair but he forgot one was still covered in rocks. Some say you can still hear the scream echo around the forest.

The Next Day Tommy checked his watch as he walked toward the Kanbara house. “I swear if those boys are not up, there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

They knew that Tommy was a stickler for efficiency and punctuality. Tommy got to the house and knocked on the door.

Mrs. Kanabra opened up the door and smiled. “It's always great to see you Tommy, I don't know what those two would do without you.”

Over the years he couldn't count all the times that he had to wake Shinya or Takuya up so they wouldn't be late to school.

“Thank you Mrs. Kanbara. I'll go wake them up then. So much easier now that we all go to the same school.”

Mrs. Kanabra gave him a nod and stepped to the side so he could enter the home. Tommy went up the stairs and toward Takuya's room first since he was the hardest to wake up. He knocked on the dorr to be polite then went in.

Takuya, as expected, was sprawled and tangled up in his blankets. “Takuya it's time to get up, we have a train to catch!” Tommy got closer so he could scream in his ear. Takuya stirred for a second then returned to sleep.

Tommy sighed outwardly, but on the inside he always liked this part of their morning routine. Tommy closed his fist tight and concentrated on the moisture in the air to freeze it into ice cubes.

He slipped some into Takuya’s shirt so he would get the message. Takuya indeed did get the message as he shot up outta bed.

“Ouch, what the hell Tommy I heard you the first time.” Tommy gave him a look. “Ok, maybe I barely heard you but I still did.”

Well that was one down and another to go. Tommy went to Shinya’s room across the hall and knocked. Surprisingly this time Shinya was already up.

Tommy sadly let the ice evaporate back into the air. “Wow, what a surprise one of the Kanbara got up on his own” Shinya at least had the decency to look flustered.

“Actually the vibrations you gave off alerted me you were here.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow.

“Oh one of my new powers! You see now that I'm connected to the Earth. I can sense the changes in it. Like vibrations due to feet moving and slight changes due to conversations.”

Tommy nodded. “Makes sense I guess, but either way you would still be asleep and be late for our first day at a new school. WHICH, might I also remind the both of you,”

Takuya came across the hall mostly dressed in his uniform, but he had his tie knot messed up. Tommy turned around to fix it,

“Is also a recon mission on information on the Digidestined.” Shinya rarely saw Tommy be this serious before.

“Tommy are you ok, you seemed stressed.” Takuya only laughed.

“Oh, that's right you haven't met Mr. Strategist yet. This is how he normally acts when the Digital World is concerned, and his track record for being accurate is pretty long.”

Shinya nodded his head in slight understanding.

“Well enough talking, getting dressed. I’ll be down stairs waiting for you two, you got 3 minutes.”

Tommy turned on his heel and went to the front door to put his shoes back on. The boys came behind him only a minute later. They boys said bye to their mother and they began to head for the train station.

As the boys paid the 500 yen price for the ride Tommy brought out a small box. "J.P finally finished the wrist communicator mode for the D-tector.”

Tommy pulled out 3 metallic bands, each with their respective symbols on them. He gave the bands to Shinya and Takuya. “So instead of having to think about your D-tector all the time it is now a new and trendy accessory. You just put your D-tector in the slot and,”

Tommy check the train car just to be sure. He pulled out his D-tector and put it in the slot. The D-Tector fused with the band and the band turned into a cyan colored band. The Kanbaras did the same with their D-tectors and bands, Shinya’s was brown while Takuya’s was red.

“It works exactly like the D-Tector but it's just in bracelet form. J.P did say that he added some cool functions. If I remember everything, he said we can now summon weapons in a more solid form, Digivolving is the same you just swipe your fractal code over the center of the band, and scanning digimon you just need to touch them.” Tommy ended his short presentation with his hand on his chin thinking if he forgot anything.

“Wow, that was a lot of information.” Shinya was slowly beginning to become overwhelmed.

“You get used to it after a while, but simply we now have upgraded digivices thanks to J.P” Takuya chuckled at his brother.

“But speaking of information drops, I kinda got lost in what our plan is supposed to be again.” Takuya scratched his head waiting for Tommy’s sigh.

“Takuya, having been on a team with you for so long I’ve learned to adapt to some of your certain characteristics.”

Tommy reached into his bag and pulled out a little notebook. Takuya took the book and began to read it.

TAKUYA’S GUIDE TO ULTIMATE DIGIDESTINED RECON

Step 1. We are going to a new school so this new term we will be the new students. Try to bring a moderate amount of attention to you. Seem friendly but courteous, but try not to be in the spotlight too often.

Step 2. Our true objective is to look for the Digidestined. We know little of them only that Ken Ichijoji is likely to have a connection to them seeing Demon was using him.

Step 3. Once found alert the others, make only minimal contact with the Digidestined. If you can try to be a “school friend”.

Step 4. Once steps 1-3 are done you will just monitor them till something comes up. Knowing the digital world, it's only a matter of time till the Demon Lords find a way to get to Earth.

Tips: The Digidestined might like to spend their time as a group all together so be wary of groups of moderate size, especially those that seem to have a diverse makeup. Also a good way to scout faster is to join a club and/or team ( I suggest soccer).

Shinya took the book from his brother to read it.

“Wow, this is actually quite easy to understand and thorough.”

Tommy only smiled “Like I said I’ve learned to adapt.”

Takuya let out a hufForFor some reason I feel like I'm being insulted, but I guess i can't complain because this actually really does help.”

Just as Takuya finished, his digivice went off. “It looks like Zoe is calling.” Takuya pressed a button on the com and Zoe appeared in a mini hologram.

“Hey Takuya, is Tommy and Shinya with you?” Takuya nodded his head.

“Me, Kouji, and Kouichi are already at the school and we found some information. It seems that Ken Ichijoji is in Class 1-B with Shinya and Tommy. Also it seems Lady Ophanimon made it so the rest of us are in the same class in Class 3-A.”

Takuya nodded his head. “So this makes our job easier right?Does everyone know what route they're gonna take for recon?”

Zoe gave a wide smile. “Yeah actually, I'm joining the tennis club, Kouji is joining the kendo club, and Kouichi is oddly going for the chess club.” That got an odd look from everyone.

“Hey, I heard Ken likes the game and I actually wanna do some investigating of my own.” Kouichi could be heard in the background.

“Hey I’m not one to judge. Oh our train just arrived, we'll be there in 2.”

The trio got off the train as they made they’re walk to school.

Unexpectedly two of the trio were tackled by two fast moving objects. Thankfully Takuya had his warrior experience and Shinya took those summer gymnastics lessons.

Instead of falling on their faces they each reached a hand down and twisted their bodies into a roundoff. They even added an ending pose for comedic effect. Tommy clapped for the two.

“Wow, ten outta ten for both.” Not lingering on the boys he turned to see who bumped into them.

On the ground were two similar looking boys, not enough to be twins but enough to be weakly related.

"Ow that hurt.” The smaller one of the two said, he seemed to be a first year like him. The older looking one seemed to be in his third year, at least second year, with a lot of hair on head. Tommy just noticed that both of the boys seemed to have googles around their necks.

He reached out both of his hands to the boys. “Hey I’m Tommy, it seems like you ran into my two friends.” The boys looked up at him, each taking a hand to get up.

However before he could get names from the two of them a girl, probably the older one's sister by the way she hit him, came up from behind them scolding them both. “What did I tell you both about running without paying attention to where you're going.”

The older one gave her a pleading look. “But if we didn't run we would be late.” Shinya and Takuya perked up that.

Tommy looked at his band, which also was a great watch, and indeed if they didn't hurry they would definitely be late. “Yeah, seems like your brother is right. If we don't hurry we’re gonna be late. And it definitely won't be a good look to be late on your first day.”

The trio, now group of six ran to the school and went their separate ways after that.The original trio to the teachers room to ask for directions and the others to their classes.

“Takuya, remember the notebook, try not to stand out too much ok?” Tommy tried to go over the plan one more time.

“OK OK Mr. Strategist, I get it. Don’t worry I have the others to help me if need be.”

The trio split up and now it was just Shinya and Tommy again. Shinya tossed a look at Tommy. “You ready partner?” Tommy gave him a determined look. “Ready as I'll ever be for the first day of highschool.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was a very exposition heavy chapter. Next chapter is gonna be more school life, I'm still debating how long I want them to stay in school be probably at least 4 chapter. The D-Tector wrist mode was something I came up with, it will play into the story and not just be accessories they wear. Um J.P and Joe are in college for this one so they might be written less. But until next time on TSDTRW.
> 
> Oh and Im gonna be updating twice a week now


	6. Tsukishima General High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Highschool life for the Warriors and Digidestined. Not much in place of plot but we set up some relations that do matter. So like filler-ish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I🤣really thought I would be more inclined to write in this pandemic. I have wrote more but I had writers block for like 4 days so. But I'm back and plan on devoting more time to this fic I have a lot planned.

Tommy and Shinya stood in front of the class as they each wrote their names on the board and introduced themselves. 

“Hi, Im Tomoki Himi, but most people call me Tommy.” Tommy bowed and gave a smile that apparently the females of the class liked because the room was filled with oohs and ahhs.

However that pales in comparison to the looks Shinya was receiving. Shinya bowed then introduced himself “Hi, I’m Shinya Kanbara” When he was done he put his hands behind his head in a lazy-esque manner. Some girls practically fell out their seats swooning over him. 

This caused a sleeping tuft of familiar looking hair from his nap. The boy shot up and pointed at the two. 

“It’s YOU.” 

The whole class shifted their attention to the boy. The girl next to him pulled him down. 

“Davis, stop it, you're making a fool of yourself. The boy, now Davis, gives her a look 

“But Kari, it's those guys from this morning.” The girl, now known to be Kari, recognized them too. She must’ve felt bad for them as she put a hand on the back of his head and forced his head down as he bowed. 

“Im sorry, this bumbling idiot is Davis Motomiya, and I’m Kari Kamiya. Again sorry for this morning.” Tommy waved his hand in a dismissive manner. 

“Oh it's fine, and those two have been dropped on their heads enough as it is.” Shinya laughed until he caught the jab. “Hey, my grades are pretty great. I'll have you know.” 

The teacher put the conversation to rest though. “Since you two seem to be acquaintances with the two you can sit behind them.” 

Shinya and Tommy did as such and made their way to the back of the class. “Wow Davis you sure do make a good impression.” A blonde boy that was sitting next to Kari jokes. 

“Shut up T.J, I make great impressions. Tell him Ken.” This caught Tommy and Shinya’s attention. The minituare group made up of the six kids turned their attention to none other than Ken Ichijoji himself. “Davis, when I first met you, you did a slide tackle that almost took me out of our soccer game. First impressions aren't your strong suit.” Ken started shaking his head. 

Davis gave an insulted look. “Ken! I thought we were friends? Partners? How could you?” Ken, Kari, and T.K laughed at Davis’ antics. 

Tommy on the other hand was in a state of shock. “It can’t be this easy.” Shinya let out a chuckle. “I’ve been trying to tell you Tommy, we are living in a full blown shounen anime.” 

T.K caught the tail end of Shinya’s statement. “Hey, did you guys say something? Im T.K by the way, Davis likes to mess it up on purpose.” 

Tommy just shook his head. “We were actually wondering about the clubs here at school.” Tommy wanted to keep the air of obliviousness as he laid out in the recon plan. 

“Oh there are tons of clubs here, I’m in basketball, Davis is in soccer, Kairi joined the newspaper club, and Ken is in chess. There are still plenty of clubs besides those too. Sports, activities, interests, they got them all at Tsukishima General High School.” T.K gave a welcoming smile. 

Shinya gave a laugh. “Unlike my brother, soccer isn’t really my favorite, I’m more of a basketball guy myself. Tommy, weren’t you looking into the soccer club?” 

Tommy nodded his head. “Yeah, his love of soccer just rubbed off on me.” 

Davis looked over to him. “Wow, that's great then you two should come to practice after school today so the coach can see what you got.” Tommy nodded. 

T.K tilted his head in Shinya’s direction. “Yeah same for you Shinya, you can come by as well. Luckily, basketball ends earlier than soccer so we can watch Tommy and your brother.” 

The conversation came to an end when the teacher cleared his throat. “If you guys have finally finished talking we can start the lesson.” The teacher turned back around to the board and began to write.

Meanwhile in Class 3-A

Takuya finished introducing himself and walked down the aisles, pretending not to be affected by the stares. He took his seat by Kouichi with Kouji and Zoe behind them. “Sorry for being late, we ran into some trouble on the way here.” 

Kouji gave a scoff. “We never expected you to be on time.” 

Takuya gave an offended look. “Come on Kouji, it wasn't even my fault this time. These two guys bumped into me and Shinya, if Tommy didn't go to help them then we wouldn't be late.” 

Kouichi gave a sly smirk as he poked Takuya’s cheek. “Oh so now it's Mr. Strategist fault? Wow, hell must’ve froze over.” 

Zoe gave a small giggle. “Now Kouichi, stop teasing our fearless leader. Can’t you see he’s just heated over the fact he’s late?” 

Takuya not finding the conversation very funny scanned the class. His eyes landed on a big mane of hair. 

“YOU!”

Takuya stood up and pointed at the unsuspecting boy. The group of warriors looked at their leader in disbelief. 

“Welp, there goes not standing out.” Kouji leaned over to Zoe. 

The boy in return matched Takuya’s energy. 

“FROM THIS MORNING!” 

Before anything could come out of it, both boys were dropped back in their chairs with a sore spot on their heads. 

“Takuya stop” 

“Tai, stop it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter I just felt like I needed to put something out. Next chapters gonna be better I PROMISE


	7. What Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Digidestined introductions, Plot is furthered, A tiny amount of action

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait I’ve been in a slump lately and final exams didn't really help but now that school is over I feel like I can give this story the attention it deserves, but just to be safe I think updates might go to once a week or a week and a half. Hope you enjoy as always leave a kudo and comment.

A red headed girl stood over the boy, now known as Tai, as he and Takuya simultaneously held their heads. The annoyance was very visible on her face. 

“Tai, some of us are actually trying to take notes”. Tai tried to defend himself. “He literally started it.” A blond boy leaned back in his chair and gave a laugh.

“Tai it's best you just go along with it, we both know Sora can be a feisty one.” He then turned toward the warriors and gave them an apologetic look. “The name’s Yamato, but you can call me Matt. Don’t worry about him, he can be a hothead sometimes but he means well.” 

The group just nodded and went back to paying attention to the teacher. As the lesson went by Takuya put his notebook up and fell asleep behind it. He honestly did try to pay attention but it was just so boring.

“Takuya”

Takuya opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by nothing but flames. Since he was the Warrior of Fire the flames didn't bother him one bit. However, one minute being in the classroom and the next being in the Spirit Realm can be a bit alarming. 

“Agunimon, why did you feel the need to summon me in the middle of school.”

Takuya turned around to see Agunion standing amongst the flames. The flames seemed to be dancing around him, but if you looked closer you could see the flames were coming from him. Spreading into the area and making up the flames. 

“School? I will never begin to understand the ways of you humans, but this is more important than your ‘school’. The Demon Lords are moving faster than expected, we believe you only have 4 days until they have first contact with the human world.”

Takuya nodded as he began to think. “Well, this was expected, the Mistress did say they have been plotting for a while now. Do we have a plan of attack yet or any special orders from the Mistress?”

Agunimon gave a snort. “Lady Ophanimon, seems to think that these Digidestined, will be valuable assets in the war against the Demon Lords.” Agunimon lifted his hand and flames began to gather around it. The flames compressed themselves into the shape of a small tag.

“This is the Crest of Courage, it came from the Ancients Code. Lady Ophanimon has informed us that the Digidestined will need these crests to be able to fully fight against the Demon Lords.”

Takuya took the crest, however he didn't really look convinced. “How is a tag supposed to be able to stop the literal representations of mankind's sins?” Takuya was definitely not convinced.

“Takuya, I know only that we are to give these to the Digidestined, they have to figure out what to do with them. Besides we have our own problems to deal with.”

Takuya raised an eyebrow as he pocketed the tag. Because of course there would be something going on with their powers. It’s starting to feel like the world really doesn't like the Warrior.

“Since your time in the Digital World the rules have changed. The physical land may be the same as before, but with the advances in technology of the human world the coding has been tweaked. Putting it simply, evolution past your beast spirit has to be achieved all over again. That means no Aldamon, no EmperorGreymon, and no Susanoomon.”

Takuya almost lost it at the implications. “Really!? So, in the fight with the SEVEN Demon Lords, our powers have been pushed back to the start of our adventure? Oh and how can I forget we also have to babysit some Digidestined kids who haven’t seen war before!”

Agunimon had the gall to laugh in his partner's face. No partner was the wrong word, they were brothers, brothers in arms. 

“It wouldn’t be very fun if it wasn’t that way now would it?” 

Takuya let out a chuckle. “Yeah, I guess you're right”

The Spirit Realm shook as the sound of the bell rang loud and clear. Takuya opened his eyes to find himself back in the classroom as people began to file out going to lunch. He looked up to find three sets of eyes staring on him. 

Kouji rolled his eyes and put a notebook on his desk. “The notes for today. I see you were visited by Aguni”

Takuya nodded in thanks. “Yeah, we need to talk. Tell Tommy to get Shinya and meet us on the roof.”

Zoe nodded and the four of them made their way to the roof. However before they could get to the stairway some guys started cat calling at Zoe.

“Hey gorgeous, why don’t you ditch these lame guys and come eat lunch with us.”

“Yeah, wouldn't you rather spend time with hunks like us?”

The Warriors tried to hold back their laughter. Kouichi leaned over to Takuya, “Hey, can I take these two? I haven't toyed with people in a while, I promise I won’t mess them up too bad.” 

Takuya couldn’t hold it back anymore and he let out a hearty laugh. “You know I don't mind it’s your brother that’s always the party pooper.” 

The boy in question gave a look and threw his hand up in a dismissive manner, “Do as you please.” 

Zoe just giggled to herself. “Wow, all this for me? You guys sure know how to treat a girl right.”

The two cat callers didn't didn't like that they were being ignored. “Hey you loser don’t you hear us talking to you?” At this point a small crowd began to form around the group. “Oh please I don’t remember learning how to speak stupid but yeah I hear your mumbling.” Kouichi bit back with a smile that was too wide. The cat callers were taken back by the statement but they were stubborn nonetheless. 

“You’re gonna regret that pipsqueak.” Both boys lunged at the Warrior of Darkness. Kouichi unfazed by the attack simply side stepped them both. As the cat callers were now behind him he put his arms behind him as he took a hold of a tuft of hair from each boy. The action caused both of their feet to be yanked from under them as they landed back against the ground. 

“Oh come on now, you ‘hunks’ can’t expect to get a lady like that right?” Kouichi squatted down to their levels. The cat callers weren’t done however has they both made an attempt to get up and attack again. However they didn't get the chance as Kouji and Takuya each tripped one of the boys making them fall again. 

“It’s best you guys run along and leave Zoe alone. She is definitely not interested and we really don’t want to make more noise then we already have on the first day of school.” Takuya gave an inviting smile that was warm. If you looked closer you could see that it wasn’t warmth but something more, something dangerous. The cat callers scrambled off back to their class. And the Warriors made their way back to the stairwell and on to the roof.

They sat by the fence waiting for Shinya and Tommy to arrive. “Tommy’s gonna be mad isn’t he?” Zoe glanced off into the distance.

“Yup” the other three choursed.

“And we’re gonna have some impossible training to go with it?”

Yet another chorus of “Yup”

They all sighed and resigned to their fates.

The door to the roof opened up as Shinya and a slightly irritated Tommy walked over to them. Shinya waved at everyone and gave a little laugh. Tommy on the other hand.

“Can someone tell me why there's talk about a group of four that beat up some delinquents?”

The Warriors could do nothing but give him faked confused looks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter, we get more plot, basketball and soccer, and some surprise visitors. Again thanks for reading leave a Kudos and Comment.


	8. Lunch, Sports, Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warriors and Digidestined meet briefly. Shinya and T.K play basketball, Tommy and Takuya VS. Tai and Davis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got stuck on how I wanted to take the story and the conversation between the warriors and digidestined. I do have a general outline for the next few chapters but the small details do make it hard. I wanna put out stuff my readers would enjoy. I did get a little carried away.

“Oh, so none of you seem to know what I’m talking about?” Tommy narrowed his eyes. “You know what it doesn’t matter anymore, why did you call us to the roof?”

Takuya dug in his pocket and pulled out the crest. “I may or may not have fallen asleep in class and may or may not have been contacted by Agunimon.” Tommy gave an eye roll and Shinya just laughed. 

“So you went to sleep and Agunimon contacted you, got it. What did he say?” Shinya was curious, not even a full day into the new school and stuff was already going down. They almost didn't make it to the roof because the amount of people by the stairwell going on about the ‘fight’.

Takuya passed the tag to Zoe. “Hold on let me call J.P, I think he should be outta class by now.” Takuya tapped his band and the symbol for thunder popped up. 

“What’s up Taki, you caught me in between classes, so time is limited.” J.P’s face popped up in a staticy hologram from the band. 

“Hey J.P, everyone else is here, turns out we gotta pick up the pace on our mission.” Everyone could hear the annoyance in Takuya’s voice. He recounted what Agunimon told him during his time asleep. He was receiving mixed looks from everyone. Tommy was in deep thought, some like Zoe and Shinya were in a panic, while Kouji and Kouichi were almost looking uninterested.

“Glad to know I wasn’t the only one to be visited today.” J.P said from the other end. He cleared his throat. “Seems like Beetlemon was more informed than Agunimon. He was checking on the defenses of the digital world where he found so firewalls in place. Nothing major for us tech geniuses, but he sent me the code, and the guy who made it, let’s just say he’s pretty damn good at what he does.” 

“Oh wow, he must be the real deal for you to say that J.P” Zoe said astonished, the rest of the group nodding in agreement. Shinya was a bit lost however. 

“And why is that? I mean I know J.P made our new D-tectors but…, well actually that is pretty amazing. Carry on.”

J.P gave Shinya a laugh in response. “Shinya, in the Digital World I was tasked with engineering and defensive operations. I’m the brawn for defense that just happens to have a brain to go along with it. Coincidentally, those fire walls that were in place before this guy overwrote them, were made by me.”

Shinya jaw dropped. “Ok then J.P, what a smarty pants.”

That got a laugh from the group at the joke. J.P had to continue however, “I was given two of those crests, apparently they are Knowledge and Responsibility. Before Beetlemon left he gave me a hint on the location of a Digidestined, it seems like he goes to the same university that I do. I think he’s a medical student.”

Tommy gave a hum. “He’s probably the owner of Responsibility. It would make sense, who would be more responsible than a doctor. Speaking of Digidestined, we think we've found a portion of them.”

Those not in class 1-B gasped. “Wasn’t that a little too easy, the days not even over yet.” Kouji ever the suspicious one asked. 

Shinya laughed, hard. “I’ve been trying to tell you guys, we’re living the life of a shounen anime. If you simply apply classic troupes to any occurrence you guys have had and we will have, everything will make an absurd amount of sense.”

Kouji lifted an eyebrow in skeptical fashion. “Shinya, all you have to go on is that Ken Ichijoji has friends, that's not really proof is it? And for the record I refused to believe I live the life of a shounen anime.”

“I don’t know what shounen anime is but, I can say that your meeting was indeed no coincidence.” Shinya’s band lit up as an image of a miniature Baboongamon was on display. He gave a formal bow in greeting. The warriors leaned in close to get a better look at him. 

“I don’t know why but I really expected the warrior of earth to be more refine, no offense.” Kouichi poked at the hologram. Gokuwmon scoffed at the blatant insult as he swatted the finger away. “Oh please, you’ll wish they had my manner's when you deal with those brutes higher up the chain. And I remember beating you plenty Darkness, so I would watch your tone.” Kouichi’s eye gave a little twitch, Kouji was quick to place a hand on his twin.

Takuya let out a whistle. “Wow, are we sure this is the purified spirit of earth?”

Shinya gave a nervous chuckle. “That’s what he says, AcientQuakemon was a bit egotistical and prideful. He didn’t want to give up his powers and held a contest to simply hand over the title, not actually his power. He did give a slight power boost but other than that Baboongamon is Legendary Warrior in name only.”

Baboongamon didn't like the matter of conversation. “I will let you know that I have plenty of control over the earth, I am more than a mere title.” Baboongamon lifted his hand and a pebble hit Takuya on the cheek.

“Hey, Shinya, control your spirit, before I have to do it for you.”

Shinya just let out a sigh. “Baboongamon didn’t you come out to say something, plot driven and profound?”

Baboongamon looked up at his partner in realization. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” 

“Hey does anybody wanna trade with me?” Shinya looked around the group with dread in his eyes.

“Stop that Shinya-boy, seriously I have a present for you and some news.” Baboongamon searched on his person for a bit before pulling out a crest, from somewhere? “Shinya-boy may I present to you the crest of Hope, the lady running things says give it to the digidestined and what not. I wasn’t really paying attention but she did say that I would get to fight pretty soon though.” The crest grew in size as it materialized and landed in Shinya’s palm. 

“So the Demon Lords are really coming in four days. Pretty ironic the demon lord's coming in four days, the number associated with death.” Zoe said solemnly. “We better find those digidestined and fast.” 

J.P spoke up from the communicator. “I’ll be working on my end to find that medical student, I have class in ten so I have to go. Good luck and stay safe.” The warriors said their farewells and then J.P hung up.

“Well Shinya-boy I’ve said my piece, farewell for now, please do come visit me in my little cavern. It does get lonely. And the rest of you expect to be visited by your spirits sometime soon to receive the crests.” Baboongamon gave another bow and his image fizzed out.

“He sure is a character isn’t he?” Zoe giggled.

“He’s gonna regret crossing me, that’s for sure.” Kouichi turned his nose up. Another pebble seemed to magicly hit Kouichi on the ear.

“We can discuss theories and more after school. Well after our practices.” Takuya let out a yawn.

“Don’t go falling asleep in class again or I’m gonna tell mom!” Shinya teased Takuya.

“You wouldn’t.” Takuya narrowed his eyes at his younger brother.

Shinya took off before his brother could grab him. Takuya chased after his brother down the stairs, he didn’t make it far as he ran into Shinya’s still body

“Hey, what…” Takuya’s complaint died off as he saw what his brother was staring at. A small blue dragon was rolling out of a door. It had a simple design enough to be mistaken for a little plush doll. Luckily the hallway was empty and no one was around, because shortly after a boy came out of the room hastily trying to catch the ‘plush’.

“Demiveemon, what did I say about not leaving the computer lab. Izzy went through the trouble of getting this room for us Digidestined…” The rest of the scolding of the digimon could not be heard as the boy went back in the computer lab.

“Was that Davis talking to a Digimon?” Shinya said aloud.

“Yeah bro,” Takuya answered back.

“Remember Baboongamon saying that our meeting wasn’t a coincidence?”

“Yeah”

“He was one of the guys, who bumped into us this morning. He also called Ken his partner in class.”

“Oh. I guess we are living in a shounen anime.”

Shinya gave a nervous laugh. “Don’t let Kouji hear you say that.”

“Don’t let Kouji hear what?” Tommy said as the remaining warriors came down the stairs. Takuya scratched his head. Kouji was gonna hate him for this. 

“Yeah, so Shinya’s shounen anime theory is holding up pretty solid.” He pointed over his shoulder. “Tommy can you hone into the computer lab up ahead?” Tommy was more willing to believe the shounen theory as he usually watched anime with Shinya, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t think the same thing when he first became a warrior. So he focused on the room about 6 feet in front of them. 

A girl was scolding Davis; she seemed just a bit older than him. “Davis, you need to tell Demiveemon to stop playing around, he could’ve easily got found out. How would you explain him, after the big memory wipe people don’t know about digimon anymore.” 

That made Tommy pause, memory wipe? I think it would be very obvious if he had his memory wiped. However that would explain the sudden decline in the ‘monster sights’ as of late. How would they even have the power and range to do that?

“I would just say he was a stuffed toy I brought from home, that i was giving to someone for a present.”

“Dav-ish your giving me away?” The poor Demiveemon sounded hurt.

“No I’m not giving you away. But I might have to if you don't stop playing around.” The Demiveemon gave a pout.

“Hey Tai, there's this new guy who came today who wants to join the soccer team, Tommy Himi and this guy's brother his name might be Kanbara as well.” Some rustle could be made out but it's hard to tell. He can only hear well, not see through walls.

Instead of this Tai a girl spoke up instead. “Oh we know him, he’s in our class Matt’s in there too. He pointed at Tai for some reason.”

Tai let out a nervous chuckle. “Me and Davis might or might not have tackled him and his friend earlier today.” Some gasps were heard from inside the room.

“Wow, Tai if you would’ve tackled a cat we would've had a problem.”

“Gatomon that offered nothing to the conversation.”

Tommy was starting to lose interest. Such carefree people how pray tell are these Digidestined, these Chosen, supposed to help us defeat the Seven Demon Lords. So he honed out of the computer lab and relayed the information he heard to the rest of the Warriors.

“Wow, OK so we have the entirety of the Chosen in our classes. Yeah I raise my hand in favor of Shinya’s anime theory. If only our original trip was this easy.” Zoe shivered thinking back to the war they had witnessed, well actually were a pivotal part in. All those digimon gone, she quickly, as did the rest, learned that hesitating and worry about morals had no part in a war. A stark contrast to the notion that they’re living the life that would make a pretty great shounen anime.

“Well Zoe, we haven't even started this ‘trip’ yet. We’re only just boarded the Trailmon. And we should act as such.” Kouichi put a hand on Zoe’s shoulder. Everyone understood the underlying message “It’s time to get serious, this is gonna be 10 times harder than the original journey.”

The warriors had to pass the computer lab to get to class. As they made their way to pass the said lab someone yelled. “GATOMON WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” 

Now at the very moment three things happen at once. The computer lab’s door swung open, a white cat with yellow gloves leaped out toward Kouichi, and several bodies tried to stop the cat. That didn't really matter as Kouichi simply sidestepped the cat. The warriors didn't expect to make contact so soon. Kouichi did sense the Digimon due to his spatial awareness. “Oh, what a nice looking cat. What a pure white coat.”

The Chosen in the lab simply looked at Kouichi with their mouths slightly hanging open. “Yeah, we always keep her nice and clean.” Kari came up with a quick and easily believable lie.

“Oh that's cool but why is she at school? Doesn't really seem like the place for an animal to be. I'm quite the feline lover myself and a school isn’t really the best place for it to be.” 

Kouji let out a scoff as he knew his brother was being this dramatic merely for his own amusement. Kouichi may have beaten his evil side of the darkness but he was still a sadist. Kouji could guess as to why the digimon attacked Kouichi. The holy digimon must’ve sensed his brother’s darkness. Kouichi knew as well but that didn’t stop him from having his fun.

Kouichi indeed didn’t stop and tried to pet the ‘cat’. The Gatomon hissed viciously at Kouichi.

“Wow, Kari was it? She’s a feisty one isn't she.” Kouichi gave a laugh. He stepped back and stood by his twin. 

“You don’t seem like a cat person Kari.” Shinya's statement seemed to alert Kari’s sense of awareness to pass the boy that Gatomon jumped at.

“Oh, hey Shinya, and Tommy too. What are you guys doing around here?” Kari was quick to change the topic away from her ‘cat’. Said cat simply pranced over to her, never taking her eye off of Kouichi.

Tommy took to answering her question. “Oh we were just having lunch with our friends,” He turned toward the other Warriors. “This is Takuya, Shinya’s older brother that your brother and Davis ran into this morning, next is the wonderful Zoe, and last are the ying yang twins Kouji and Kouichi, the one your cat kinda attacked.”

The Warriors could see the way Kari shifted on her feet when the conversation got brought back to the cat. However, she didn’t have to worry as Tai came bursting out of the computer lab. “I heard you wanna try out for the soccer team?” He pointed an indignant finger at Takuya.

Takuya leaned against the window as he put his hands behind his head. Sporting a challenging smile. “Why, is that a problem? I mean I already showed you I can take a tackle after you basically ran me and my brother over.”

Davis was quick to defend his mentor. “Hey, we already apologized for that!”

Shinya had a thoughtful look. “Actually, I’m pretty sure Kari apologized for you, not actually you. Also from what I heard no words were exchanged between Tai and Takuya not in an actual conversation.”

Sora tried to play peacekeeper by standing in between both groups. “He’s right Davis, maybe you guys should just apologize and keep it moving since you guys have a real possibility to be on the same team.”

The Warriors all gave a mental snort at the double meaning those words held, even if they were the only ones who knew about it. Before anything could become of the situation the bell rang and it was time to go back to class. As the Warriors made their leave Takuya tossed a look over his shoulder.

“See you at practice.”

Tommy almost let Takuya have his moment but he just couldn’t. 

“You do know you have class with him right?”

Takuya stopped walking as his ears turned red. “You just couldn’t let me have it could you?” The warriors laughed at their leader and then went their separate ways to class. Shinya and Tommy made their way down the stairs when they felt a wave of pressure. Shinya went to hug himself at the seer uncomfortableness of the feeling. 

“Tommy what was that?” Shinya looked to his friend for some answers. Tommy was looking at the soccer field. In the center there was a spatial disruption about the size of a golf ball. As soon as the riff appeared it was gone. 

“I don’t know but if I had to guess the Demon Lords are preparing for their breach in four days. It had to be a small portal, nothing came through so that's good, but we need to be on high alert especially around the soccer field.” Tommy sent a message to the rest of the Warriors, alerting them of the breach.

“I'm sure the Chosen had sensed the breach as well, if not we got some work to do.”

And if the boys returned to class more tense then when they left no one made a comment about it. The bell signaling the end of the school day was a welcome noise for most. Shinya and Tommy began packing their bags getting ready to go to their respective practices. Shinya stopped for a second as he was about to put another book in his bag. 

“Hey, Tommy?”

Tommy raised his head from his own bag to look at Shinya. He gave a hum in acknowledgement. Shinya had a contemplative look on his face. He opened his mouth to say what was on his mind but he closed it again. He wanted to make sure he had the right words. 

“Does any of this even matter?”

Tommy’s face softened just a fraction. “Since I know you like I do, I’m sure you're referring to the impending danger of the Demon Lords,” Tommy went back to putting his stuff up counting. “It’s nice to have a bit of normalcy when you will be thrusted into a dangerous environment. You’re not being selfish by wanting your high school life to be normal.”

Shinya tossed Tommy a small smile. “I know but, shouldn’t we just put all of our focus on the Demon Lords?”

Tommy tossed his bag over his shoulder as he gave it a thought. “The Demon Lords are temporary after we defeat them, we still have to be functioning members of society. Plus it don’t want my best friend to be dumb because he wanted to skip school.” Tommy ended his spiel with a toothy grin aimed at Shinya. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Walk me to the basketball gym Mr. Smartypants.” Shinya walked in front of Tommy to hide his blush. 

The boys made it to the gym and Tommy left Shinya with a fist bump. “Go show ‘em how us Warriors throw down.”

Shinya gave a nod. “Yes sir!”

Shinya made his way into the locker room to change when he bumped into T.K “Oh hey T.K, be honest what do you think my chances are of making the team?”

T.K tilts his head in a manner suggesting he’s giving his next words a lot of thought. “Honestly, pretty good we have a good team now, but a new player could bring a better dynamic to the team.”

Shinya turned to get dressed in a spare basketball uniform. He walked onto the court and ran the warm up laps with the other basketball boys. It was surprisingly not a struggle at all, it actually took no effort from him at all. He began to pick up his speed leading the pack. The coach blew the whistle and the boys went to do shooting drills. The coach waved his clipboard at Shinya to catch his attention. “Wow, son you got some speed to you. What’s your name?”

“Shinya Kanbara, sir.”

“Hello, Shinya, how about you shoot a few shots going around the rim in an around the world style. I see you got the speed, how about the shooting?”

Shinya picked up a ball and stood on the left of the goal on the edge of the three point line. T.K was opposite of him to help return the ball. Shinya took a breath to calm himself.

“Come on Shinya-boy, you're the Warrior of Earth, you will not embarrass me!” Shinya almost yelled from Baboongamon’s interruption. 

“Well I will be embarrassed if you don’t shut up. Now let me focus.”

“Shinya you OK? You just stood there with your eyes closed. I almost thought you fell asleep.” T.K said from across the court.

“My bad I just had to get in basketball mode, I'm good now.” Shinya jumped into the air. He did feel a little higher than normal but he just blamed it on the adrenaline. He waited till he reached his peak then took the shot, using just enough force to make it into the hoop. T.K passed the basketball back to Shinya, it went like that for the next four shots until he ended at the other end of the court.

Clapping could be heard from the benches. “Good job, Shinya, you have perfect form and by god have you seen how high you jump? You sure do get some hops young man.” The coach was practically beaming at Shinya. Shinya just gave the classic Kanbara smile while scratching the back of his neck. T.K came up to him. “I think you got the spot in the bag Shinya.” He held up his hand for a high five. Shinya raised his hand to complete the gesture. 

“Well that was enough for today. Shinya I’ll be seeing you back here tomorrow?” The coach gave an expectant look.

“Yes sir!” Shinya wasn’t quite sure though as it was very possible he wouldn't be here tomorrow. Tommy did say it was good to try for normalcy, so that’s what he’ll do. A plus, was that he now had a connection to one of the Chosen.

After basketball he freshened up and made his way to the soccer field. He met up with the other Warriors. Kouji had his hair pulled up in a high ponytail due to his kendo club today. Zoe still had her racket from tennis, Kouichi seemed a little at edge but when did he not.

“Hey guys, are you ready for the practice match?”

“Yeah, we know Takuya and Tommy are gonna destroy them in soccer no doubt, I’m more concerned about the, you know, other problem” Kouji said the other part in a hushed tone.

Zoe had a small frown on her face. “I thought we had another four days right? This must be a test run, Tommy said it was the size of a golf ball.” 

Kouichi gave a grimace, “Whatever it is, has a shit ton of darkness leaking from it. It may have been only the size of a golf ball but I felt an overwhelming sense of darkness, I was almost drunk on the energy wave.” Kouichi was shifting in his chair while talking about it.

Kouji put a hand on his brother in an effort to calm him. You could only see it up close but Kouji was feeding his brother some light energy to balance out the overwhelming darkness. “Hey, just breathe, we’re past Duskmon, and if he comes back we will just bring you back every time.” Kouichi put his hand on his brother’s and nodded.

Shinya looked over to the field as the boys were beginning to stretch before they started Tommy’s and Takuya’s tryout. The coach had blown the whistle and the boys ran over. It was Tommy and Takuya versus Tai and Davis, each team had their own goalies. As they went forward for the coin toss Takuya and Tai met each other on the center field line. Tai won the coin toss with heads.

The whistle blew to signal the start of the game. Tommy felt something familiar. “It can’t be-“, Davis unbothered, went for the ball as Tai kicked it to him. Tommy thought to himself, “These two don’t seem to be linked to the Digital World enough to sense disturbances.”

Tommy went on the defense to steal the ball. He went for a sliding tackle. Davis dodged it with ease but Takuya was there to get the ball back. Takuya didn’t get far as Tai was there to block him. Takuya passed the ball with a cure around Tai to Tommy. Tommy went for a fake out on the goalie which got him the first goal.

The game went on in a back and forth battle of defense and offense. Tai had broken through Tommy’s defense once to get a goal in but even then it was a close one. They went into halftime two-three with Takuya’s team in the lead. The whistle blew to commence the second half and Tommy and Takuya were passing the ball in between each other with great skill. Tai and Davis tried with little luck in getting the ball back. Takuya, being a showoff, tossed the ball in the air and gained a little height, performed a full layout into a bicycle kick scoring another goal. 

Shinya couldn’t pass up this chance. He cheered at his brother, “Ok, Inazuma Eleven”

The other warriors were confused. “What’s Inazuma Eleven?”

Shinya gave an offended look. “Only the best soccer anime EVER.”

The other warriors just shook heads at their newest members' antics. The game ended with Takuya and Tommy beating Tai and Davis with a two point lead ending the game with a four-two score.

The boys went to center field to shake each other's hands when a scream pierced the soccer field. The boys looked over to the bleachers to see Kari holder her head and Ken looking like he was about to cry. Tai and Davis ran over to their sister and boyfriend respectively. Tommy and Takuya looked over to the Warriors to see they had their own problem to deal with.

Kouichi simply pointed to the center of the field, “Their coming, get everyone away from here.”

Tommy and Takuya ran to the rest of the Warriors but they didn't get far before a spatial disturbance opened on the field.

“Oh wow sugar look at this, the Human World looks just like he described it.” A shadowy figure stepped out of the disturbance.

“Who’s to say he still remembers us, he was a different mon back then, pumpkin.”

T.K let out a snarl filled with the most disgust he could muster. “You!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading TSDTRW leave a Kudos and/or Comment. See you next time on TSDTRW, I'm super excited for the next chapter. We are going full digimon and I'll just say these next chapters are gonna be the most fun to write .


	9. What's Wrong With Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark figurers enter the soccer field and problems arise on both sides both Warrior and Chosen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I went down in quality of fight scenes and all attacks come from Wikimon.net which I use a lot when it comes to writing this story.

A Devimon and a Ladydevimon step out of the disturbance as it closes behind them.

“You!” T.K screamed in anger

“Sugar do you know this angry little blonde?” LadyDevimon asked her partner in crime.

“No, pumpkin, you know the only humans we know are of the dark haired variety.” Devimon replied back

The Devi Couple scanned the soccer field until they landed on the Warriors on the bleachers. At the sight of Kouji and Kouichi, LadyDevimon gave a small smile.

“Look sugar, it's the young master!”

The Chosen gave the digimon wary looks, some just blatant hatred (read: T.K), turned their attention to the Warriors.

“Did that LadyDevimon just say ‘young master’.” Tai was differently confused.

“Yeah, I heard that too, but who are they talking about? Those guys don’t know about digimon, they couldn’t, not after the memory wiped Izzy and Gennai pushed out.” Kari was off put by that group to say the least. Her mind went back to when Gatomon flung herself, because Gatomon wouldn’t attack innocent people, at Kouichi. And it didn’t help that her head was pounding, the waves of darkness were really getting to her.

“It doesn’t matter we have to protect them from the evil digimon.” Davis was ready to step into action.

“I think you mean to destroy the evil digimon Davis.” T.K was practically fuming at this point he could hardly contain himself. Matt had come up to comfort his brother but T.K only shrugged him off.

“Patamon lets go.” T.K wouldn’t let anyone stop him in his quest to get rid of all dark digimon.

The digimon that were settled under the bleachers watching the soccer match flew and/or crawled to be by their partners. Patamon flew in front of his partner ready to protect him.

“This time I won’t let him get away.”

**Patamon Digivolve to Angemon**

**Demiveemon WarpDigivolve to EXVeemon**

**Wormmon Digivolve to Stingmon**

**Agumon Digivolve to Greymon**

**Gabumon Digivolve to Garurumon**

**Biyomon Digivolve to Birdramon**

The Devi Couple stopped their advancement on the Warriors to face the Chosen’s digivolved partners.

“Oh you must be the Chosens we were sent to defeat, I hope you don’t take it personally, it’s the only way we can meet the young master again.” 

**“Darkness Wave”**

**“Leather Wing”**

LadyDevimon sent out a wave of her fury bats to attack the nearest digimon, with Devimon sending a wave of fire to hit any of those she missed. Birdramon being made of fire went to block the attack.

“You will not hurt my friends!”

LadyDevimon gave a small smirk. She had laced her Darkness Wave with her  **Poison** ability, so when Birdramon was hit, her energy would be taken from her and converted into dark energy she could consume. Sora almost ran onto the field to save the devolved Biyomon, fortunately Stingmon zipped by Biyomon to catch her and bring her by the other chosen. 

“Biyomon are you ok?” Sora ran to her partner, tears threatening to fall.

“Yeah, I’m ok Sora, I’m just really tired. I think-, I think I’m gonna take a nap.” Biyomon let her head fall to Sora’s chest.

Tai sent out Greymon after LadyDevimon. Greymon shot two “ **Mega Flames** ” back to back to try to overwhelm the digimon. LadyDevimon just simply let out an evil cackle as she used her “ **Stun Whip** ” to disperse the incoming flames. Tai went to check up on Sora and comfort her in a hug. “It’s ok Sora you sit back and watch over Biyomon, we got it from here.” Tai looked over to Matt, having a wordless conversation. Matt nodded.

“Garurumon you need to stop the incoming wave of fire!”

Garurumon gave a howl. “ **Ice Wall** ” A wall of ice erupted from the ground to intercept the incoming Leather Wing. The Ice Wall did hold back most of the attack but the fire did manage to make a hole in the wall. LadyDevimon used the hole to launch herself at her opponents. 

“Thank you Ophanimon for Digi Watchers, join today to lose 3 inches off your waist!”

“ **Darkness Spear** ” LadyDevimon’s left arm turned into a long spear aimed at Stingmon. Stingmon easily countered her move with his “ **Spiking Finish** ” starting a match of close combat in the air. Devimon was simply seating on the remains of the Ice Wall watching his pumpkin go to work on the Chosen. She made quick work of the Stingmon, the young master always trained them in swordplay. The Gatomon launched herself at his pumpkin, “ **Lightning Paw** ”.

Thinking back on the times in the Digital World his pumpkin never got along with the Gatomon evolution line the only expectation was the Celestial Angel Ophanimon. He did remember her telling him about a particular Gatomon that turned into an Angewoman that she really hated in a different life cycle. Maybe this was that Gatomon. His thoughts were interrupted by Angemon attacking him.

“ **Holy Rod!** ” 

Devimon gave an unimpressed look. He blocked the incoming attack with his ‘ **Death Claw** ’. “Your partner seems, unbelievably mad at me for some reason, do you care to explain?”

It would seem impossible for Angemon’s frown to deepen but it surely did. “One of your kind killed me in front of him when he was only 8 years old. I think he has the right to be infuriated by your kind.” Devimon’s eyes wided a fraction. “Oh, I’m sorry that happened to him, I remember killing a Patamon a few years back” Devimon’s smile turned sinister very fast.

“You hurt T.K once you're never gonna hurt him again!” Angemon swung his rod hard in a downward swing trying to attack Devimon. Devimon simply caught the rod in his hand. “What’s the problem? I said I was sorry, I’ve changed, albeit ever so slightly, but I changed. I won't kill you, I’ll just hurt you really bad!”

“ **Deadly Nail** ” As Devimon was about to stab Angemon straight through his abdomen a strong wave of darkness spread through the area. Kari hugged herself due to the waves of the element she was most sensitive too. The Dark Ocean couldn’t even compare to what she was feeling right now. Ken was having flashbacks to when he was the Digimon Emperor and he hung out in the Dark Fortress. 

“Akuma, Oscura stand down!”

**10 minutes earlier**

“So are we going to do something? Or are we just going to sit here?” Shinya was a little confused wouldn’t this be the perfect time for them to Spirit evolve when there were digimon invading the world right now. Baboongamon was inside his mind itching to fight the Devi Couple as he called them. Apparently they had quite the reputation in the Digital World.

“No, we need to maintain our cover. It’s hard to move as we want to when we have these Chosen breathing down our necks. And nevermind the fact that it would be totally plausible that we wouldn’t work as both of our groups have different views.” His brother was acting a complete 180 then usual. He was acting like the leader everyone made him out to be. It was kinda scary to be honest.

“This could also be a great chance to analyze how the new Digidestined fight and how well they work together as a team.” Tommy is the one to always want to collect data, a true strategist.

“Look sugar, it's the young master!”

Kouji’s eyes grew double their sizes. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.”

The warriors looked at Kouji breaking his usual undisturbed face. “Guys, this is bad. I think that might be Akuma and Oscura.”

That didn't help clear up why he was going into a frenzy. Kouji rolled his eyes. It’s good to see he’s still a jerk even when he’s panicking. “When Kouichi was Duskmon he had two loyal attendants, a Tsukaimon and a BlackGatomon. He named them Akuma and Oscura, they followed him everywhere and mostly handled his dirty work. Once we freed Kouichi from Duskmon’s control Kouichi let them go free to do whatever they wanted. He gave them the power to digivolve a level up so they could defend themselves. I just assumed they would have reconfigured enough times by now to forget us but it seems they held onto their memories.”

The warriors were taken aback by the story. When it came to Duskmon they didn’t really speak about it too much as to not bring any bad memories back to Kouichi seeing as he already gained his sadistic mannerisms from his time as Duskmon. They never got too many details of his time as the dark digimon.

“Wait, so how is this a problem, it seems like we have two new allies then. They could help us defeat the Demon Lords.” Shinya was pumped at the prospect of having more allies.

“Shinya,” Kouichi finally awoke from his unconscious state and he began to sit up. “They came from the spatial disturbance made by the Demon Lords, it's safe to assume they are either being manipulated or they are working for the Demon Lords now. I can try, but the way I and Ranamon raised them, let’s just say that didn’t lead to the most outstanding citizens,”

“Hold on, we’re not gonna just fly past that. You AND Ranamon!?” It was well known that Zoe and Ranamon had their issues back in the day. It was always a battle over who the prettier one was. Zoe’s personality is nowhere nearly as shallow as Ranamon, but it does help her in ‘convincing’ people and digimon to get her way. Kouichi simply scratched his head, not wanting to poke a beast. Slightly noticing the pick up of the surrounding winds.

“Well, technically it was Duskmon and Ranamon. I'm not one to gossip but Ranamon was entirely whipped for Duskmon. Whatever he did she wanted a part of, case in point Akuma and Oscura. So much so that Oscura picked up her ‘sugar’ catchphrase.”

Zoe still didn’t like the Ranamon part of it all but she relented on the issue. The winds seemed to calm down just a bit. “You were saying Kouichi.”

Kouichi nodded as he knew way too well, never to get on Zoe’s bad side. Rest in peace Evilmon you will never be forgotten. So Kouichi instead took the graces of Zoe Orimoto and continued. “As I was saying, Akuma and Oscura are not ones to stop until their missions are done but I may have a way to get their attention. This might get a little dark, just a warning to you guys, however we might have to break our cover for it to work.”

Takuya gave a huff but simply waved his hand in a dismissive manner. “I trust you Kouichi, just don’t scare the poor Chosen too much.”

Kouichi gave a small nod then looked toward his brother. “Bring me back if I get too crazy?”

Kouji nodded his head. “Always.”

The Warriors nodded and braced themselves. Kouichi closed his eyes and channeled the accumulated darkness over the day. He opened his eyes to see Lowemon bowing before him. 

“Kouichi, are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Lowemon lifted his head and summoned his lance. Around the neck of the lance hung a tag. “This is the Crest of Kindness. This crest belongs to Ken Ichijoji, he has also been brought back from the side of evil, albeit it petty evil not on the level of what you have been forced to do.”

Kouchi took the lance and pocketed the tag. “Lowemon, you know all evil can make a person do many horrible things, no matter the pettiness.”

Lowemon simply nodded in response.Taking a deep breath, Kouichi slammed down the lance and the darkness dispersed. Lowemon gave reassurance as he faded as well. “‘I’ll be ready to stand in at any time, young master.”

“Akuma, Oscura stand down!”

The whole field seemed to stand still as Kouichi walked to the center, all eyes focused on him.

“Sugar, are you seeing what I’m seeing.” LadyDevimon knocked Gatomon to the ground as she turned to give Kouichi her full attention. Devimon also tossed Angemon to the side with his rod to give his attention to Kouichi.

“Yeah pumpkin, the young master has made his appearance.”

Both LadyDevimon and Devimon floated down to Kouichi and kneeled their heads bowed. 

“Young mast-”

Kouichi slammed his lance again. Both digimon gave a wince, knowing their young master had some aggressive tendencies.It didn’t bother the Devi couple as they know deep down their young master did everything he did because he cared. None of their hits were evil digimon only corrupt officials that would terrorize innocent digimon.

“Why have you appeared in the human world attacking these humans?”

Oscura had a huge smile plastered on her face. “Oh sugar, we took up a bounty so that we could see you again!”

Kouichi lifted an eyebrow. “A bounty?” 

Akuma nodded his head. “After you left and Lucemon’s run had ended we went our separate ways. I took on File Island and Oscura found her way into the hands of a Myotismon. We had failed you however, it turned out that everything we did was all a plot by Daemon to take out the opposing virtues. We were recreated from Digieggs 3 times when about a month ago the Demon Lords sent out bounties across the lands looking for digimon to go to the Human World.”

Kouichi gave a hum. “So you thought you would take on the bounty so you could find me again?” 

The Devi Couple nodded again. Kouichi really hated this part. His face gained a frown. He moved his lance ever so slightly and the Devi Couple let out screams of agony. The lance’s tip was covered in shadow as it took the form of a tendril that was used to whip both digimon. The Chosen were speechless as Kouichi had struck his ‘digimon’ ; they didn’t really know their relationship, but they did call him a young master.

“How could you do that, are they your partners?” Ken yelled at him. He himself was thinking of his own eerily similar situation with Wormmon. He hugged said digimon even tighter. He had picked him up after the LadyDevimon, or Oscura Kouichi called had struck him hard enough to devolve him.

Kouichi let his gaze land on the Chosen. “OH, you seem to be mistaken. These two are not my partners, they are my very stupid attendants.” 

The Chosen looked at the boy confused.

“Attendants? Who does this self-entitled guy think he is?” T.K was still glaring at Kouichi and the Devi Couple, looking like he’s been ready to pounce. The Devi Couple looked up to their young master.

Kouichi pointed his lance to Akuma’s chest. “Do you realize how stupid it was for you to actively seek me out? I let you two go for a reason. But then again I never kept you around for your smarts now did I?” 

Oscura leaped onto Kouichi seemingly not being affected by the previous strike. “Oh sugar, you know you couldn’t get rid of us that easily!”

Akuma just stood as he had a smile on his face. “Pumpkin, I think the young master can’t breathe.”

Kouichi was indeed turning red but not from the lack of oxygen. “Akuma, control your woman and tell her to unhand me.”

“Pumpkin, you heard the young master.”

Oscura gave a very childish whine. “But we spent all this time looking for him.”

“Pumpkin.”

Oscura let go and stood by Akuma once more. Kouichi was thinking about what to do with Akuma and Oscura when he sensed a hostile presence.

“Angemon NOW!” 

“ **Heavens Knuckle!** ”

Kouichi just shook his head. He slashed the attack in two with a wave of his lance. The Angemon wasn’t letting up anytime soon. Kouichi simping twisted over the Devi Couple and intercepted the digimon.

“Move Kouichi, we need to destroy those dark digimon.” T.K screamed at him.

“I would advise you against that T.K, those are not evil digimon. Are they nice people? No. But they definitely aren’t evil.”

“You just said that they work for these Demon Lords, and that doesn't sound like the names of nice people!” Davis was backing up T.K for once. Kari decided to throw in her two cents as well.

“Just look at them,”

The Devi Couple in question were looking between each other comically. 

“Sugar she's talking about us?”

“Yeah, pumpkin I think she is.”

“They’re dark digimon and all dark digimon are evil.” Kari sounded very confident in her statement.

Laughter could be heard from the Warrior side of the bleachers. Kouji was laughing his butt off. He stopped when he saw no one was laughing with him. 

“Oh, they’re serious!?”

“Of course, dark digimon are always evil. Devimon, LadyDevimon, Myotismon, the  _ many _ different Myotismon.”

The tension on the soccer field was getting thicker by the second. The tension was a one sided problem as the Chosen were the ones continuing to attack Kouichi. Not that he couldn’t handle himself. The ‘battle’ didn’t last long as Kouichi’s band began to glow and enveloped everyone on the soccer field.

Tommy felt very trapped when he opened his eyes. As if a ton of bodies were on top of his. Shinya beat him to the punch however. 

“GET OFF OF ME”

Turns out they landed in what was the living room of a japanese styled home. Tommy heard some grumbles about how this always happens when they go to the Digital World. That put him on high alert, as well as the other Warriors. Tommy was about to get up when he found that he was actually the bottom of the pile with one person still lying on top of him. Rather suggestively if he might add.

“Shinya, I need to get up too you know.”

Tommy saw the blush on Shinya’s face but he chose not to comment on it.

“I was waiting on everyone else to get up.”

Again he chose not to comment that the pile had been over for at least a minute by that point.

“Ok, Shinya, where are we anyway?”

Someone cleared their throat to gather everyone’s attention.

“I have gathered you all at the order of Lady Ophanimon.” A tall brown haired man commanded the attention of the Warriors and Chosen. The Chosen seemed to know who this man was as they were already seated around the table, with a few new faces it seems.

“How do you know Lady Ophanimon, sir.” Takuya was fast to try to take control of the situation. The Warriors were ready for combat at a second’s notice. Most of them eyeing T.K, most cautious of him having another outburst. Two boys came from a different room at that moment talking to each other in grand gestures. One of the boys was J.P the other one Tommy didn't recognize. J.P noticed the increase of people at the house, he scanning eyes landed on the Warriors and his smile grew and ran up to them encompassing them in a group hug.

“Guys! You won’t believe how much DigiWorld has changed since we’ve been here. It’s so crazy, some of the physical structures barely exist anymore, the elemental factions have been done away with digimon go wherever they please, but somehow they still try to keep the elements separated when they can!”

“J.P slow down your getting too excited. Frist, how did we get to the Digital World?” 

A new voice spoke up. “That would be me, the name’s Izzy Izumi, the Crest bearer of Knowledge. J.P was kind enough to let me see the new D-Tector model and let me open a portal through with the one with the most stored energy.” Izzy explained as he absentmindedly touched a purple tag that hung around his neck.

“Oh so you're the one who overwrote J.P’s firewalls” Zoe waved her hand in hello.

“Yeah, I was honestly surprised when he told me about it, when he found me and Joe. He gave us our crests and said we were needed to help save the Digital World again.” Izzy was recalling as he pulled out his laptop and began typing on it.

“Wait, they have our crests?” T.K said not even trying to hide his disgust.

“Yes, is that a problem?” Izzy said as he looked up from his laptop.

“Yeah, it is because they work with dark digimon.” T.K voiced his complaint full of hate.

“Sugar, dark doesn't mean evil” A BlackGatomon that had to be Oscura dedigivolved, said from where it was being held by Kouichi.

“Oh, young master I didn’t know you would be associated with such bigoted people.” Akuma said from Kouichi’s head.

“T.K isn’t a bigot, all dark digimon need to be destroyed.” Kari was quick to defend her childhood friend. All of their troubles have come from digimon of the dark variety. 

“I say that means the humans that partner with them can’t be trusted either.” A young boy that had an Upamon spoke up from the place he sat next to T.K.

Kouji looked at the boy as he felt a little familiar. He ran his fingers through his hair forgetting he had it in a high ponytail from ken-.

“Cody?”

The boy looked for the person calling his name. He saw his kendo teacher staring back at him, “Mr.Minamoto, what are you doing here?” he bowed his head in a sign of respect.

“Cody you know these guys?” Davis questioned. 

Cody shook his head. “I know Mr.Minamoto because he’s my kendo instructor. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. His twin is very nice too, one time Mr.Minamoto had got sick and his twin filled in for him one day. He wasn’t as good as his brother but you could still tell he was trying.”

Kouichi waved at his one time student. “Yet you want to get rid of the people who associate with darkness. I know your grandfather has taught you better.”

Cody had opened his mouth to defend himself but closed his mouth knowing Kouichi was right. T.K wasn’t going to let it go though. 

“I don’t trust them Gennai, what if they’re just plotting against us, I’ll never work with someone who works with the darkness.”

Shinya didn’t know what to do. Ophanimon said they had to work together and that they would be a useful ally against the Demon Lords but they kept talking about Kouichi and he didn’t like that. He did see a hole in their argument, but he didn't know if he should bring it up or not. Kouich, however, had no problems bringing up their hypocrisy. Kouichi neutral look quickly turned into a smirk

“What about Ken Ichijoji?” Kouichi knew he had struck a nerve at how the room had gone quite.

“Don’t you bring Ken into this!” A girl with purple hair rose up in the said boy’s defense.

“Yeah Yolei’s right he had nothing to do with this.” Davis was quick to defend his boyfriend as well.

“Oh, so the dark spore just didn’t happen right.” Kouichi knew how to hit where it hurt.

Shinya didn’t want this to escalate anymore so he looked over to the rest of the Warriors, but they were fully behind Kouichi even Tommy didn’t seem like he was going to stop Kouichi.

“The dark spore was controlling Ken, making him evil, he didn’t have a choice.” T.K said, trying to defend his argument.

Kouichi gave a bitter laugh. “Yeah, no, that's not how the dark spore works.” 

Izzy had stopped typing away one his computer to look up at Kouichi. “I did intensive research on the spore, I think I know exactly how the spore worked. It was mind control.”

Takuya stepped up. “I don’t think you can tell the creator how his creation works.”

This got a collective gasp from both the chosen and Gennai. Ken had a look of horror on his face. And the looks the Warriors were getting didn't particularly help the situation.

“Oh you misconstrue, I didn’t make  _ that _ spore but I did make the original spore. Like Ken I was once controlled by the evil forces of the Digital World, Darkness is just my element, I can’t control that. It’s not my fault that darkness justd easily sways from one side to the other. Anyway our digital world was in a constant statute of war. I don’t know what your journey was like but I can tell it was vastly different from ours just by the way you carry yourself, you’re hesitant and carefree. The spore was made as a soldier enhancement, that just powered up digimon making them stronger, smarter, among other things. A side effect was that all inhibitors were gone away with, whatever you secretly thought before the spore, you acted upon after the spore. The spore doesn't make you anything, it just helps you be you.”

Kouichi ended his reencounter with a look that was directed at both T.K and Ken.

“NO, That’s a LIE. I wouldn’t do all those things willingly!” Ken was grabbing on to his head in a panic.

Shinya felt bad for the guy his whole world was probably crashing around him. Shinya looked to Kouichi to see any kind of emotion on his face. His face was neutral, but the way his eyes seemed a little hollow told Shinya that he didn’t particularly enjoy doing it even if he has a smirk on his face.

“I can remove it from you if you like.” It was a statement that brought the attention of the Chosen from worrying about Ken back on to Kouichi. The Warriors could tell that he was making a gesture to obtain good will between the teams.

“Remove it? What are you talking about? It's already gone.” Davis questions the Warrior of Darkness.

“He’s friendships he made with you have lessened the effect of the spore but the only way to remove a spore is with the powers of darkness. ” Kouichi shook his head

“Yes, yes please remove the spore.” Ken was pleading at this point.

Kouichi made his way over to Ken but was stopped by T.K

“I don’t trust him Ken, he could be tricking us.”

“T.K stop it!”

Ken got up from his spot, pushed past T.K, and went over to Kouichi. And if Ken brushed past T.K a little more forcefully than he had to, no one made a comment about it.

“I don’t care about your petty hate toward dark digimon. If you haven’t been paying attention, Kouichi has never attacked first. It was always you, on the soccer field and in this conversation! He was just defending Devimon and LadyDevimon, I didn’t particularly like the way he struck them, but other than that they both are still by his side. So I’m putting my trust in him, really T.K for the Chosen of Hope you're doing a bad job at it.”

He bowed his head in an effort to apologize. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. Now can you take out my spore please?”

The warriors were taken back by the way Ken had told off T.K, Kouichi especially. Kouichi laughed out loud, hard enough he had to wipe a tear from his eye once he was done.

“Oh, I like this one.” 

“Hey, that’s mine you're talking about.” Davis said from the spot Ken just left. Ken just gave him a look that said ‘not right now’.

“Here I think I can do you another favor as well.”

Kouichi reached into his pocket and pulled out the tag with the Crest of Kindness. It was now glowing a fuschia color as he handed the crest to Ken.

“Lowemon says that you can use that crest to digivolve Stingmon to the Ultimate level.”

Ken nodded and turned around to reveal his neck to where the spore had entered his body. Kouichi had placed his hand over the spot he felt the spore coming from.

“You might feel a slight pinch, but after that it’ll be over.”

Ken braced himself. Kouichi closed his eyes and concentrated on the darkness he could feel from Ken. With his crest being returned to him the spore was easier to pinpoint and extract. “OK 3,2-”

“OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW”

“I did warn you.”

Ken looked over his shoulder and glared, he soon began to laugh though. “Thank you Kouichi, I don’t see why T.K is being such an ass.”

Kouichi just shrugged and put his eyes back on the chosen. “Are there any more hang ups you have with my group, because I just hope you know you guys had a problem with just one of us who happens to be on the weaker side. I wouldn’t want to think about seven of us.”

Kouichi waited for a second, looking over the faces of the Chosen.

“What he means is that, we look forward to this partnership between us Legendary Warriors and you Chosen Children,” Shinya saw Tommy walk up behind Kouichi and command the attention of the room. It was weird seeing his best friend take on a role of leadership. Tommy was no pushover, not anymore anyways, but Shinya has never seen him take over a situation only providing insight here and there.

“Besides, I'm sure Lady Ophanimon doesn't appreciate that her world would be put in jeopardy because of a few petty and childish discrepancies. Tommy gave a glance to Kouichi that told him something akin to the conversation was over.

“Now, Tommy you know I had no problem with these Chosen, you can tell Lady Ophanimon that as well.” Kouichi said with a rather neutral face, but once again his eyes betrayed his true feelings. Shinya couldn’t quite pinpoint it but it looked like something akin to fear. It seemed like that small detail was missed on the Chosen’s part as they resumed having their own separate conversations.

“I’m glad to hear that Kouichi.” The room was doused in bright heavenly light as the voice was a mixture of a motherly and sweet tone. The Warriors immediately drop to kneel on one knee. The Chosen were put on edge by the sudden beam of light. Even more confused on why the Warriors drooped to kneel so quickly as it was almost as natural as breathing. Gennai however kneeled too so that was also throwing them for a loop.

Out of the shining pillar of light came a teal armored lance wielding angel. That was the best way Shinya could describe Lady Ophanimon, seeing her on a hologram versus in real life, the hologram just didn’t do her justice. Her lance had disappeared in a burst of light and she had shrunken down a bit to fit inside the house.

She was looking over the, really her, Warriors as she shook her head. “Is it too much to ask you just do as I ask my children. I let the school situation slide as you found Shinya, but I promise you the Seven Demon Lords will be a much easier battle if you allied yourself with the Chosen.”

“Now where is the fun in that Mylady.” Takuya's tone was short and respectful, a huge 180 to what his attitude had been before.

“Yes, you children always seem to find ways to have fun on my account now don’t you.” The warriors still had their heads bowed, not really knowing how this conversation would go.

“Have you given the Chosen their Crest as I asked?” Lady Ophanimon’s question was a simple one, yet the Warriors could tell there was an underlying undertone they wouldn’t want to deal with.

“We were in the midst of doing that Mylady, but we ran into a bit of a problem. My attendants came crawling back it may seem.” Kouichi kept his voice as monochrome as he could. Akuma and Oscura had enough brains to be bowing as well, even giving small ‘Milady's.

“Oh I know of your attendants who do you think let them keep their memories after every life cycle? They are as much a part of this as the rest of you. I sent them that bounty poster to set them on the right path.” The ‘you’ was directed at the Chosen, they at least read the air enough to bow their heads when addressed. 

“Now rise my Warriors, we are having a war council.” Shinya made a mental note to ask Tommy to dive deeper into their trip to the Digital World when they had a bit more privacy. Something was starting to feel off and he had some questions he needed answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think i'm gonna make another work to put my notes and and the random stuff I write when i have too many ideas about this story when it comes to past chapters. Thanks for reading Comment and/or Kudos. An informative war meeting and a wardrobe change next time on TSDTRW.


	10. "Wow this is pretty comfortable for Chrome Digizoid" Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chosen and the Warriors hold a war council

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so due to recent developments namely, the new Pendulum Z pets, that was announced like in the past day. Gokwumon as been given the BOOT. Chapter 4 has been edited and the lunch conversation in chapter 9. Also good news I am double posting today since chapter 10 got really long Im just making it a two parter.

The Warriors stood from their kneeling positions. Akuma flew back onto Kouichi’s head as Kouichi took a hold of Oscura once again. The Warriors sat across from their new allies as they all paid attention to the commanding presence that was Lady Ophanimon.

“Gennai, have you prepared what I asked of you?”

Gennai gave a small nod as he waved his hand and the table opened up creating a sort of barrier between both teams. A holographic screen bursted from the open space, Lady Ophanimon seemed pleased as she gave a small hum.

“What do you children know of the Seven Great Demon Lords?” It was an open question to anyone willing to answer. Tommy made a move to answer seeing as Davis made it clear they didn’t know who they were earlier when Akuma and Oscure showed up. Izzy however raised his hand going back to his laptop.

“In my database it says here that the Seven Great Demon Lords are: ‘Digimon who were once high-ranking Angel digimon, especially among beings of goodness. However, they each committed a deadly sin and fell. The Demon Lords all represent one of the seven deadly sins of man. Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, Greed, and Wrath. The members of the group are Lucemon, Lilithmon, Beelzemon, Belphemon, Leviamon, Barbamon, and Daemon!?’”

“You mean the guy with the long red coat was a Demon Lord? Well it’s a good thing we banished him to the Dark Ocean!” Davis was ever an optimist. Ken and Kari again had the most severe reaction at the mention of darkness. Tommy was starting to get annoyed at the lack of information he had. He made a mental note to interrogate the Chosen so he could get the answers he wanted.

“Well, I don’t think so Davis, thinking back that seems like the worst thing to have done.” Cody had his chin in his hand thinking back to that night. Daemon had swore he would be back. Cody had looked over to Kouichi who had a crease in his brows and-.

“Whats funny Kouichi?” T.K had beat Cody to his question, though he wouldn’t have been so aqussing of the older boy. Cody knew why his Jogress partner had such an open hate for darkness, he really did, but he just couldn’t picture Kouichi as a bad guy, deep down anyway.

“Oh, I'm sorry, you guys ‘banished’ a dark digimon, to the  _ Dark Ocean _ ? You just sent him to dark digimon heaven, or would hell be more appropriate? He has so much dark energy to feed off of he might be ten times stronger than when you originally face him. Rookie mistake if you ask me, at least we killed our Demon Lord off when we had the chance.” Kouichi had calmed down laughing and was just shaking his head at the Chosen.

“You  _ killed  _ your Demon Lord?” Izzy asked the question, not in a manner that was aqussing, but one that just couldn’t understand the statement.

“You know…?” Takuya made the universal thumb across the neck motion. 

“Oh don’t tell you guys are a bunch of pacifists?” Kouji was already annoyed about this whole partnership with the Chosen. He really didn’t feel like babysitting a bunch of babies on top of trying to save the digital world,  _ again _ .

“Of course we don’t kill digimon, they’re living creatures just like you and me!” A new girl spoke for the first time. She had brown hair and had a slight accent to her voice, maybe american? Tommy couldn’t really tell. She was seated rather closely to Matt so they might have a thing going on.

“Kouji, try not to antagonize your allies, if you would.” Lady Ophanimon placed a hand on Kouji to stop him from saying anything else. She turned her head back to Izzy.

“I’m surprised you have that much information young man, but it’s also to be expected from the Crest bearer of Knowledge,” Izzy blushed at the praise. “Speaking of crests now would be the time to give the Chosen their crests back.” Each warrior stood one by one giving the Chosen their respective crest.

Takuya walked over to Tai and handed him the Crest of Courage. “Since you have a Greymon this must be yours. May your flames be all consuming.” The tag did not light up as Tai simply put it around his neck.

Kouji had two crests but he had more or less an idea of who he was to give them too. He first walked over to Matt. “Lone wolf type, I remember when I was like that, fitting seeing as you also have a Garurumon. Never forget your friendships.” Again the tag did not light up as Matt put the tag around his neck.

Kouji then turned to Kari. “Honestly, we are on opposite spectrums of the Light, however you have received the Crest of Light so here you go. And remember just because you may be Light doesn't mean you are good.” Kari paused at his words but nonetheless took her tag, again it did not light up.

Zoe went to the remaining girls and handed them each their crests. “Sora you demonstrated love today by showing your concern for Biyomon, but remember love comes from the most unexpected places.” Sora’s tag lit up but only briefly as she put it on. Zoe turned to the girl with brown hair.

“Hi I’m Zoe if you didn’t know. The Crest of Sincerity has chosen a good suitor, the way you stood on your belief was very moving, however you should know that sincerity can be pretty hard to maintain during a war.” The girl took her tag and again it didn’t light up. The girl looked to Zoe and introduced herself.

“The names Mimi by the way.” 

“Well, nice to meet you Mimi.”

Tommy was next to deliver a Chosen’s crest, which happened to be the Crest of Destiny. Tommy laughed at the notion of destiny in itself, knowing no matter what you do, your life is already determined. “I can’t say much about destiny, since everything about it is controlled. That just tells you whatever happens on this journey is meant to happen, don't try to change it, for that too was already planned.” 

Davis took his crest with a harrumph, “I’m controlled by no one, destiny or otherwise.” Tommy simply rolled his eyes but the smile on his face betrayed him. Tommy could see the resemblances to both Takuya and from the small interactions he had with the guy, Tai as well.

Shinya was the last to give out a crest, Hope. He honestly didn’t know what to think of when it came to T.K. He had to have some redeeming qualities if he was chosen to be a, well Chosen. However, it really didn’t sit well with him that T.K could blindly hate anyone associated with darkness. He also didn’t seem that bad when he was at basketball practice. He stood in front of T.K and pulled out the tag. “Here’s your crest.”

Short and simple, no extra flair. “What, no ominous message?” T.K gave him a questioning look.

Shinya gave a little laugh. “Yeah, that’s not really my style and I also haven’t been in the game that long to be giving out words of wisdom like that. Besides Ken already told you, you seem to be lacking hope for someone who is characterized by the virtue.”

Now that the Crests were returned Lady Ophanimon continued on with her war council. “In regards to the Demon Lords they are indeed a force to be feared, but not unbeatable. The Demon Lords and the Celestial Angels were hatched at the same time, as Izzy has stated all the Demon Lords were once holy angel digimon. I knew most of their counterparts, but the only one I knew closely was Lilithmon, I was actually there when she fell to the dark side.”

The Warriors had their mouths hanging open, this was definitely news to them. Tommy’s eyebrow twitched but he bowed his head respectfully nonetheless. “Lady Ophanimon, did you not see this kinda information to be fit during our first meeting?” The room seemed to get a bit colder. Shinya looked over to Tommy and put a hand on his knee, which was not surprisingly freezing.

Lady Ophanimon unbothered by the question, simply answered, “Oh, you didn’t need to know any of this at that point now did you. Your mission at that time was to find the Chosen. You did that, now your mission has returned to dealing with the Demon Lords.” Even though her eyes were hidden you could tell by her tight lipped smile she would not be taking any more questions.

Shinya gave Tommy’s knee a squeeze and the room's temperature returned to normal. He could tell by the way some of the Chosen were dressed that they didn’t like the cold that much. Lady Ophanimon turned to her digivolution line counter.

“Oscura I wanted your and Akuma’s report on the Demon Lord's plan, since you spent some time in the enemy base.” 

Oscura gave a nod. “Well sugar, it seems as if the Demon Lords are trying to open a portal here but it seems as if they aren’t going to fit anytime soon. It took a lot of energy just to send us two through. They said it would likely take 4 days for just one of them to get through, and before we left it seemed like Lilithmon was to be the first to get sent to the Human World. Although it seems that each Demon Lord has their own separate goal, not an overall goal of the group.”

Lady Ophanimon gave a hum of understanding. “In terms of strength, Lilithmon will be the easiest to defeat as she fell for petty reasons. Her lust for men had driven her to fall and such is where she gains her power. Battling her will be a challenge but not impossible, no man can deny her or raise a weapon against her.”

They brought the room to a bustle of murmurs and worries.

“What are we gonna do then?”

“Doesn't that cut our forces in half?”

“I thought we needed all of us to fight the Demon Lords?” 

Shinya watched thinking to himself. So only girls will be able to fight Lilithmon, that was Zoe, Sora, Mimi, Yolei, and Kari. That didn’t look good, only five girls against a Demon Lord? Well actually… 

“Me and Ken can go with the girls that will make 7 and we have Imperialdramon so we have a mega with us already.” Davis proudly announced.

Lady Ophanimon turned toward the boy. She didn’t say anything for a while and Davis visually shifted due to the attention. “I think I did say that no man can defy her, did I not?”

Ken stood by Davis, “Well we don’t particularly like women all that much so I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem.”

Lady Ophanimon gave a laugh. “Well in that case take young Shinya and Tommy with you as well.”

Shinya turned a unique shade of red he didn’t know he could turn. Tommy simply rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what you are getting at, but I do feel better that there would be 3 Warriors going than just Zoe. Even if Zoe is more than capable of holding her own.” Tommy felt a shiver run down his spine, he couldn’t get cold but, wow Zoe sure did give him chills.

Said girl reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Wow, thanks Tommy, I’m glad you learned to trust me.” She added a nice light giggle at the end. Tommy didn’t want to brave through another one of those storms again, worst valentine’s day ever.

“Don’t go forgetting about little ole me now sugar.” Oscura waved a paw from where Kouichi was holding her.

Gatomon was hissing from her position on Kari’s lap.

“I didn’t spend all that time looking for the young master to just sit on the sidelines. And sugar I already smacked you around so I’d be more of a help to you at the moment, I didn’t see you digivolve into Angewoman now did I?”

“Kari has her crest now so that won’t be a problem and even then me and Aquilamon can turn into Silphymon, what can you do you dark kitty?”

Oscura was about to jump on her holy opposite and Gatomon was damn near doing the same.

“Oscura, Gatomon, I myself have always loved a good cat fight but ultimately right now is not the time. Each of you have your role to play, I’m sure both of you know of the ‘Tactician from Another World’, I would suggest you both act and prepare yourselves accordingly.“

That statement stopped both digimon in their tracks. But also brought upon their first moment of unison.

“OH HELL NO”

They both stopped hissing at each other and just resorted to glaring from across the table. Lady Ophanimon made a small motion with her head which Shinya could only guess was an eye roll.

“Now that we know which Demon Lord we are fighting first we can now plan accordingly.” She gave everyone an once over, and shook her head. “You can’t possibly think you would be going to war in those flimsy clothes now did you?”

Lady Ophanimon waved her hand and in front of each Chosen was a set of protective wear. “I have prepared some light protective wear. It is made with a mixture of different Digizoid Metals, it is made for defense but it also gives a boost to your physical abilities. Some might have slight alterations, but that is merely a fashion choice.”

Davis held up the suit for inspection, this gave Shinya a chance to get a look as well. The protective set included a jacket, a shirt, a pair of gloves, although some people had pants and others shorts. Over where your heart would be each had a symbol of their crests as well as on their gloves. The overall look of the suit was a shiny metallic black but there was color from the symbols and the shirt matching their respective crest. That made him think, Yolei and Cody don’t have crests.

“Um, excuse me?” Shinya’s question had brought the group's attention to him, stopping the inspection of their suits. “So, I just kinda realize that Yolei and Cody don’t have their own crests, is that like on purpose or did you guys just draw the short straws?”

Tai had been the one to answer him. The way no one tried to jump in before him, even Davis, clued Shinya that Tai might be the overall leader of the Chosen. 

“Oh well we honestly don’t know why, but Davis’ group is actually the second group of Digidestined. Davis, Yolei, Cody, T.K, Kari, and Ken used the powers of the original crests to Armor Digivolve when regular digivolution wasn’t possible. T.K, Kari, and Ken always had crests and Davis found his when he set Ken’s crest free. We never really asked that question when they both had the two crest already.”

Shinya gave a nod.

“Integrity and Passion,” Tommy had his eyebrows furrowed.

He lifted his head up to look at the Chosen. “I remember wandering the library in Seraphimon’s castle when I came across this book. It was in an ancient language and at the time I couldn’t actually read it, but now that I think back it had pictures of the Crest of Virtues. You guys have all the crests in the book except for two, Integrity and Passion. They might be out there somewhere in the Digital World, no telling where though.”

T.K nodded his head. “Well that does fit Cody. He’s always going on about how his grandfather thought him even if no one was watching you must always be at your best.” He then gave a little laugh. “Even that one time when he wouldn’t move from his seat till he ate the last of his food.”

Shinya found that rather stupid, but he obvouisly didn’t say that out loud. Shinya was easily one to throw food away if he didn’t like it. So Cody was Integrity and Yolei was Passion, that made him think about what sort of digimon their partners would turn into or actually were. Since he just realized he hasn’t met their partners yet.

“Now that the Chosen have their protective wear, Tommy?” Lady Ophanimon looked over her shoulder at the Warrior of Ice. Her mouth lifted into a slight smirk. “Don’t you think it’s time for some training?”

Tommy looked up from where he had his head in his hand. He gave his Cheshire Cat grin and looked at the Chosen. Some of them visibly looked unnerved. “Oh, Boss Lady, are you sure I thought we wanted to keep our allies.” 

“You haven’t killed any of the Warriors yet so I’m sure the Chosen will be just fine, plus the Chosen don’t physically fight their own battles.”

Tommy gave a nod and got up and went to Gennai and whispered in his ear in what Shinya guessed was a question. Gennai seemed to understand and led Tommy out of the living room and through a door. Shinya could guess he was preparing for the training.

“Lady Ophanimon, do you not wish to grace us with special suits?” Kouji wasn’t usually one to make a joke so that brought Shinya out of his thinking, Lady Ophanimon found this amusing however. “I had J.P put the suit into your new D-tector, he could explain it better than I.”

J.P was about to explain but he had got a call from Tommy. “Bring them to the Arena, explain it there.”

J.P shook his head and gave a small laugh. “The oh great Tommy has requested our presence in the Arena, everyone should put on their protective suits before though.” Lady Ophanimon waved her hand and the suits had taken the place of the Chosen’s old clothes. The Chosen started to look like a Special Ops group or something. Shinya would say they were going off to war, if he didn't know any better.

“This is unbelievably comfortable for something made from Chrome Digizoid” Izzy was picking at his jacket. The other Chosen were also ‘inspecting’ their various new clothing.

“Why are mine and Sora’s neck line so low?” Mimi looked down at her jacket with a whine. Zoe gave a bubbly laugh. “You get used to it, female warriors and most digimon are overly sexualized all the time. What would you expect from clothes made by a digimon, who even though she’s an _holy angel_ , bares her midriff?”

Mimi gave a nod. J.P had gone through the same door that Gennai led Tommy through and after a hallway or two the group found themselves in a huge arena. Marble columns were placed around the arena which was mostly open but there were a few different obstacles here and there. Most of them gave good areas to hide and/or camp out. Some of the structures were tall enough to be used as vantage points. Tommy sat on a broken pillar swimming his legs in a childish manner, that Shinya found oddly,  cute,  funny. 

“Welcome, Chosen, Warriors, to my playhouse, or as some of you will come to know it as Hell on Earth, well the Digital World.” He had on a smile that just sent off nefarious vibes. 


	11. "Leather? I feel like a thug!" Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The massacre, I mean the training match begins.

“Since we have only four days left till our fight with Lilithmon and her troupes it will be imperative that we train for this battle. If you were selected from the mission would you please step forward.”

Zoe, Shinya, Oscura, Ken, Davis, Kari, Sora, Mimi, and Yolei all stepped up with their respective digimon. Tommy gave the group a once over. “Those not participating can take a seat in the spectator area. Don’t worry that area has a shield up thanks to Gennai so any flying debris will be bounced off.” He pointed to a small area where Gennai was sitting waving his hand. The remaining boys went up to the spectator area and watched the training from afar.

“So, today will be an easy day, just a simple group fight. Chosen versus Warriors, this is simply for me to gain a better feel for how you Chosen fight as I am already well acquainted with my fellow Warriors.” Tommy jumped off the pillar and sauntered over to the group.

“Wait but aren’t you guys at a disadvantage when it comes to numbers? There’s six of us and four of you, that can’t be good odds for you.” Ken had counted the people from each group and found the Warriors were outnumbered by two.

“Oh that won’t be a problem, I’ll even give you guys Oscura to balance it out.” Tommy waved his hand dismissively. Ken raised his eyebrow. 

“Aren’t you being a bit cocky?” Yolei bit at Tommy.

“Not at all Yolei, I don’t think I'm being cocky when I’m simply stating facts. You weren't at the soccer game, but your friends had a problem with just Oscura and Akuma and that was two versus seven, the three of us are more than enough for your team, that's why you guys are here. To train.”

Zoe and Shinya went to stand by Tommy and the remaining seven got ready to fight.

“Veemon, let’s go!” Davis nodded at his partner as everyone did the same, the light of digivolution was a bit blinding. 

**Veemon digivolve to XVeemon**

**Wormmon digivolve to Stingmon**

**Hawkmon digivolve to Aquilamon**

**Biyomon warp-digivolve to Garudamon**

**Palmon digivolve to Togemon**

**Blackgatomon digivolve to LadyDevimon**

**Gatomon digivolve to Gatomon**

“What’s wrong sugar you didn’t feel like digivolving into that Angewomon form of yours?” Oscura was quick to make a jab at Gatomon as she was laughing at her. Gatomon herself was confused as she was trying for Angewomon. She simply hissed at Oscura then turned to Kari.

“What was that Kari, don’t you have your crest? Why can’t I digivolve to Angewomon?” Gatomon couldn’t stand that she was losing to Oscura. Kari shrugged her shoulders as she held up her digivice again

**Gatomon digivolve too…**

**Gatomon!!!**

Gatomon slumped down her shoulders. Kari had turned to Kouji, “What did you do to my crest!”

Kouji looked around then pointed to himself. “What are you yelling at me for? I’m just the messenger. I didn’t touch your crest and even if I did, I'm Light too, so I couldn’t do anything!” 

Lady Ohpanimon spoke up from where she sat by Kouji. “The crest must first be activated again before you can achieve your higher level of digivolution.” She pointed to Garudamon. “Sora’s crest activated just enough to achieve Garudamon although she does seem pretty weak.”

“So, why didn’t Stingmon digivolve to ultimate then?” Yolei was backing up her Jogress partner.

“The situation does not call for it Yolei, we are simply having a training match and even then I don’t think my basic human kindness warrants a digivolution.” Ken spoke humbly, yet Shinya couldn’t help but feel there was a jab somewhere in there.

“Are we all ready?” Zoe was picking her nails, growing bored with all the talk. She was always the most reserved one of the group she had to be when she was the only girl in a group of boys. (Although the boys would disagree with that assessment of her character.) She always had to be level headed, cautious, and be able to react quickly due to the boys impulsive actions. (Again, the boys wholeheartedly disagree with that statement.) Every now and then she liked to fight just like the rest of the boys. (The boys seemed to rub the back of their heads.)

“You guys are gonna fight seven digimon like that? Where are your partners?” Mimi didn’t have any strong feelings when it came to the warriors but it didn’t sit right with her that teenagers would be fighting digimon with no help.

“Oh their here but we won’t need them yet, if you make us call them consider yourselves somewhat capable.” Tommy kept his smile the whole time. “Don’t traumatize our new allies Tommy!” Takuya yelled from the spectator area.

“I’ll try. But Mimi is right to fight like this would be pretty bad, J.P” Tommy turned to the Warrior of Thunder, “How do we activate those protective suits?”

“It’s pretty easy actually, you just want to channel a bit of your respective element into your hand like you would your fractal code then swipe against your D-Tector.” J.P made the motion with his hand that looked very tokusatsu-ish if Shinya had to describe it.

“Well, might as well make a show of it.” Shinya said under his breath. He took a deep breath as he began to feel the earth, he could feel every being touching the other and it honestly could be a bit overwhelming. He could feel Baboongamon in the back of his mind, guiding his thoughts on how to bend the earth to his will. That apparently did the trick as the ground began to vibrate. Shinya can hear someone say, “What the hell is going on.” but he was too focused to really figure out who said it. 

He opened his eyes to see he had collected a sizable amount of the ground enough to cover his hand. J.P said he had to swipe some of the rocks to activate the gear. The assortment of rock and dirt began to weave themselves around his hand making small rings. He brought his hands up in a X shape then flicked his hand down to meet in the middle, scanning his hand as he went.

The D-tector had materizled a leather jacket that had a baboon sitting indian style juggling rocks on the back. His pants had been switched out with brown cargo shorts with black boots. Honestly something you could see anyone wearing, maybe this was a stealth tactic, hiding in plain sight? But...

"LEATHER?, I can't help but feel like a thug!" Shinya shook his head while he hung it in shame, what would his mother think?

The arena became cold and windy at the same time, making for a convincing blizzard even without the snow. Zoe had wrapped herself in the winds as it shrunk and concentrated around her fist. Tommy in the same fashion made an ice crystal. Zoe was first to finish as she bursted from the winds as now the arena was just cold. She floated down hovering above the ground as she now had wings made of compressed wind, with a crop top that showed off a bunch of her midriff. In Shinya’s opinion the jacket was necessary. Her’s was designed with a butterfly and a kite on the back with tight fitting shorts and knee length boots to match

Zoe had finally looked down and covered herself. “WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS GIVE ME THE PROVOCATIVE ONE!” She summoned blades of wind directed at Kouji and Takuya, they both dived out of the way forgetting about the forcefield. The blades hit the forcefield causing it to flash. 

“Zoe, what was that for?!” Both screamed.

“Because, I knew you were looking! PERVS!” Both boys ended up hiding behind Kouichi and J.P.

Meanwhile Tommy’s ice crystal fell away into a pile of snow leaving a throne made out of ice as he sat down regally. His leather jacket was cyan with a polar bear and a surprisingly none threatening yeti. He had ice covered boots and white shorts to match. He made himself some gloves that were etched with frost like patterns, he even went as far as to make himself a lopsided crown. He was getting looks from the Warriors. He just rolled his eyes. 

“What? I can’t be the only one who wanted to look fashionable? I mean in the words of Queen Elsa, the cold never bothered me anyway.”

Shinya rolled his eyes at Tommy. Tommy had done away with the crown though as he swiped it off his head and threw it on the throne. The crown melded into the throne as Tommy reached his hands into it. The throne lit up and as he pulled out his hands two weapons followed. In his right hand he held a Frosted Blaster and in his left was a Blizzard Axe, after the throne crumpled into lifeless snow. Zoe also created fans made of compressed wind.

Getting the idea, he could hear Baboongamon in the back of his mind screaming ‘FISTS!’. So he punched both fists into the ground, the image of bronze colored gauntlets with an amber trim entered his mind, courtesy of Baboongamon. When he took out his hands the gauntlets were around his arms shining in the light. Shinya also summoned JishinTsuchi from the ground, he gave the mallet a couple of swings before throwing it over his shoulder. Shinya could only hope that the three of them look intimidating enough. 

“Now, let’s get this show started, Lady Ophanimon won't you do us the honors?”

“It would be my pleasure, on my mark…” Lady Ophanimon brought her hands apart then brought them back together in a single clap that sent out ripples of energy.

The Chosen were disorientated for a second, while the warriors took this chance to begin their attack. Oscura was not, however, so she sent out a “ **Darkness Wave** '' to set up a shield so the Chosen could find a spot to watch the battle from a distance. Shinya went right for it, punched the ground launching him into the air , aiming JishinTsuchi at XVeemon. The digimon blocked the attack, but was blown back by the seer force. Stingmon went after Shinya with a “ **Spiking Finish** '' but a wall of ice intercepted the attack. 

Shinya had a smile on as he knew Tommy was having his back even when he was dealing with his own problem at the moment. “Go under the ice Shinya-boy.”. Shinya nodded to no one in particular and dropped straight down and began to focus on the ground imaging an U-turn underground. He came up behind Stingmon and swung JishinTsuchi into Stingmon's side, “ **Jack in the Box!** ”. Stingmon flew toward XVeemon where his Jogress partner caught him.

In the spectator area the Warriors and Chosen were giving small commentary on the separate battles. “So the first battle is Shinya vs. Stingmon and XVeemon? You would think Shinya would be at a disadvantage seeing as both of his opponents can fly, and he is the Warrior of Earth” Kouichi made the observation.

“Well not exactly if he can manage to keep both of them on the ground he won’t have a problem.” Izzy again was typing on his computer, presumably taking notes, as he answered.

“True, but then he could just summon a few pillars to scale and meet them in the sky.” J.P pointed to the many pillars arranged around the arena.

“But it seems that Shinya has help from the looks of it.” T.K grumbled from his spot by his brother.

“Are teammates not supposed to help each other?” Kouji gave an aqussing glare at the blond, “I’m sure more than anything Tommy is trying to show you guys how bad our upcoming battles might get.”

“Besides, Tommy would be beside himself if Shinya got hurt, but he knows Shinya is a warrior now so he must be able to take care of himself.” Takuya said with his arms crossed against his chest. Looking at the still standing ice wall.

They turned back to the arena this time watching the battle between Zoe vs. Garudamon and Togemon. Zoe was having a standoff in the air with Garudamon while Togemon was shooting “ **Needle Spray** ” as ranged support. Zoe however simply flicked her wrist using her fans to create harsh winds to divert the attack. Garudamon flapped her wings, sending out a fiery aura in Zoe’s direction, “ **Shadow Wing** ”. She dodged the attack then began to zip around it creating a vortex to redirect it at Togemon with extra power.

This knocked Togemon off the structure she was standing on as she began to fall. Garudamon went to save her friend. You could hear Mimi’s scream.

“NO!”

Zoe didn’t let up however, she zoomed over to Garudamon delivering a “ **Astato Vespa** ”, where she stomped BIrdamon down hard and followed up with “ **Luna Assalto** ” where she flipped into an overhead kick which slammed Garudamon into Togemon. Sora’s scream was added to Mimi’s. Garudamon flipped herself and Togemon over so Garudamon would take most of the fall. In the process Garudamon dedigivolve into Birdramon, who was flying weakly, and Togemon had struggled to get up.

The spectator area again commented on the battle.

“Wow, Zoe is really putting Birdramon and Togemon through it. You guys weren’t kidding when you said she was scary.” Matt had given a whistle.

“Who said she was scary?”

“Zoe is the nicest girl you will ever meet.”

“The world doesn't deserve her.”

“Just amazing”

All of the warriors seemingly found the most mundane thing to look at as if it was the most interesting in the world. Kouji was playing with his hair, Takuya was twiddling his thumbs, J.P was randomly inspecting his D-Tector, and Kouichi just looked down at his shoes.

The Chosen had found this odd as they looked out to the arena at Zoe who was now surrounded by harsh winds, giving her an ominous look. 

“What’s this about me being scary?”

The Chosen gulped and furiously shook their heads saying nothing. Zoe’s look instantly changed and the harsh winds were gone now and she returned to looking normal again.

“Good” She gave a smile and zoomed off.

Turning their attention to the center of the arena Tommy was going against Gatomon, Aquilamon, and Oscura. Tommy had constructed more obstacles out of ice so he could use them as coverage as he shot at the three digimon. He used his cryomancy to build floors he could skate on, as he turned his boots into ice skates. He skated around never staying in one place as he used his Frost Blaster to shoot the three digimon.

“Why, won’t he stand still? There’s no way they can hit him like that!” Yolei yelled in frustration. “Aquilamon! You need to disrupt his ice passages!”

Aquilamon nodded then turned to Tommy and shot her “ **Blast Rings** ” as the ice under Tommy and he fell through giving an overly dramatized scream.

“OH NO, I’VE FALLEN! WHAT EVER WILL I DO!”

He then began to laugh as he made another path which arched to make use of his falling momentum to launch himself at Gatomon, the white cat shot a “ **Cat Laser** ” trying to stop his fast coming attack. Tommy had simply deflected the beam by lifting his Blizzard Axe aiming it at the area where Kari and Yolei were. He then smashed his axe into Gatomon sending her into Aquilamon sending both into a nearby ice structure.

Back in the spectator area the rest of the Warriors and the Chosen were conversing. 

“Tommy, sure has a child-like way of fighting.” Izzy said looking up from his computer.

“Well, I’m pretty sure the Digital World broke him at some point. He was only nine when we first started, he was being bullied too, then he was told he had to protect a world that wasn’t his. I’m honestly surprised that he didn’t crumble under the sheer weight of it all.” Kouichi made the statement looking at his young friend continuing to skate.

“Honestly, I truly didn’t give him much credit, what was a child supposed to do during a full scale war with lives at stake? I almost resented him for it, at the beginning he never wanted to do anything, always waiting for things to be done for him, a spoiled prince if I’ve seen one. It wasn’t till a Bearmon he befriended died because of his lack of responsibility that he became serious.” Kouji said from where he had his arms folded and his eyes closed.

“After that he dived into studies of the Digital World, asked Boltmon to train him in wielding his axe and MagnaKidmon cultivated his sharpshooter skills and also became fast friends with him. Ever since he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t let his childishness get his friends hurt. But by doing that he never really got to act like a child, and it only really shows in his fighting as both Boltmon and MagnaKidmon never wanted him to lose his playful manner, so he took it to heart and only lets his child side seep through his fighting.” J.P said as he shuffled through a deck of cards preparing to show Tai a magic trick.

“But, since he met my younger brother he has started to loosen up again, because during the rest of our time in the Digital world he was beginning to become  _ too  _ serious. Shinya has brought him back to a nice balance of being playful and serious when needing to be.” Takuya finished sharing as he was trying to braid Kouji’s hair as Kouji kept swatting his hands away, finally relenting and letting him.

“That seems like a lot for a small kid to go through. I don’t know how I would have come out of that same situation.” Cody said as he petted Upamon who had fallen asleep in his lap.

“You guys don’t even know the half of it.” The four boys choursed.

Back in the arena, Osucra took the brunt of the laser as she stood in front of Kari and Yolei. “Now that’s not nice sugar. You shouldn’t aim for the Chosen.”

“Oh and our enemies won’t, Oscura  _ darling _ ?” Zoe came swooping in aiming a kick at Oscura. Oscura raised her “ **Darkness Spear** '' to block the incoming attack.Oscura pushed Zoe back and went to follow through with her attack. As she lunged at Zoe she was parried by her fans. Zoe counter attacked with “ **Fiorente Furiata''** , where she did two roundhouse kicks in rapid succession aimed at Oscura’s head. Oscura dodged by jumping back and aiming her “ **Stun Whip** '' that almost got through Zoe’s wind barrier.

“Kari! Yolei!”

Sora and Mimi came running with Togemon and Birdramon not far behind.

“What’s going on?” Mimi was huffing at the distance they had to run to get to the center.

“It seems Zoe and Oscura are having an argument.” Kari said dumbfounded. 

“It seems that you’ve gotten better over the years.” Zoe said as she was huffing just a bit.

“Well sugar, I chalk it up to Ranamon being a better Warrior than  _ you _ ” Oscura gave a pompous laugh with her hand to her mouth and her head tilted back.

“What was that, you glorified escort!”

“Sugar please, you can’t say anything dressed like that.”

Zoe looked down and she began to get angry, the winds responding to her emotions.

“Oh you wanna go?!” She had raised her hand with fractal code ready to digivolve, put before she could a yelled rang out.

“ZOE! INCOMING!”

Shinya came flying towards the center of the arena flailing his arms. Zoe looked over and let out a sigh. She flicked her fan and a gust came and slowed Shinya’s descendent and a new ice ramp appeared like a giant slide to let him down gently.

“Wow, Ken and Davis pack a punch.” He was looking for any dents in his new gauntlets where he was double punched as the two had tried to attack him. He barely had time to throw up his arms. He finally got his bearings and looked around the mini ice scape.

“Wow, Tommy maybe I shouldn’t have let you watch Frozen that many times.”

Said boy was humming “Into the Unknown” as he turned to his best friend with a hum.

Shinya just shook his head. “Nothing.”

The Chosen had regrouped as Davis and Ken had come flying in with XVeemon and Stingmon. Davis and Ken hopped off and ran towards Kari and Yolei. “I think it's time we take it up a level.” The other three nodded.

“XVeemon!”

“Stingmon!”

“Gatomon!”

“Aquilamon!”

**XVeemon, Stingmon DNA Digivolve to Paildramon**

**Gatomon, Aquilamon DNA Digivolve to Silphymon**

The chosen in the spectator area gasped. T.K, however, chose to cheer. “Ha, there’s no way they're gonna win now. That’s three ultimate digimon and two champions, there's  _ no way _ they can get out this one.”

Kouichi gave a sigh. “Levels have never really mattered to us. The first time Takuya and his partner fought they easily sent a Cerberumon running with his tail between his legs. And plus it’s really just two ultimates and two champions versus Tommy and Shinya. Zoe and Oscura are having their own little thing.”

Izzy looked up from his laptop once more. “Speaking of we haven’t seen your partners this whole time, where are they?” The other chosen have been wondering the same.

Kouji, now fashioned with a high braided ponytail, simply pointed to the center. “You’re about to see.”

Tommy and Shinya stood back to back facing the four digimon at each corner. They each raised their left hand as fractal code began to swirl around them. Zoe did the same thing in the air as she faced Oscura.

“You ready boys?” Both gave a nod, Shinya had a huge smile plastered on his face as he began to imagine how digivolving would feel.

“I’m sooo excited, Tommy it’s my first time digivolving!”

Tommy looked over his shoulder with a grin. “Well don’t let your first time be a loss then.”

The three Warriors swept their fractal codes to their bands as the light of digivolution filled the arena.

“ **EXECUTE! Spirit Evolution!** ”

“ **Kazemon!** ”

“ **Kumamon!** ”

“ **Baboongamon!** ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, seems like we are going in to 3 parts. I need to finish out the battle then do some more thing. Thank you for reading TSDTRW, comment and/or leave a kudos and enjoy!


	12. It can't be that bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The training session come to a close, but some questions still need answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you spot the reference just know you are part of the reason I write this story. The note at the end has some important details about update schedule and pacing for the story so be sure to check that out. Thanks for reading TSDTRW please leave a comment and/or Kudos, Enjoy!

Shinya wouldn’t say he felt like he himself had changed but more like he has always been. He knew that his body wasn’t the same but he didn’t feel awkward. Having fur did feel weird and he did have a weird urge to groom himself, but on the plus side he knew he was definitely taller than Tommy. Which he was quick to point out.

He moved over and poked Kumamon’s cheek, he knew it was Tommy but right now he felt it was better to call him Kumamon. “Finally I’m taller than you, by a foot it seems too.” He let out a laugh.

Kumamon tried to bite Baboongamon’s finger after a few pokes. “Now, Baboongamon, you don’t want to lose a finger now do you?”

Baboongamon pulled his finger back. “I don’t think you can, they’re made of stone after all.”

Kumamon rolled his eyes. “Whatever, we have some Chosen to take care of.” Paildramon, Silpymon, Togemon, and Birdramon all fired attacks at the duo.

“ **Desperado Blaster!** ”

“ **Static Force!** ”

“ **Needle Spray!** ”

“ **Meteor Wing!** ”

All attacks met at the center with an explosion. Causing the arena to be covered in a thick veil of dust. 

The Chosen in the spectator area were left speechless. Tai finally spoke in a small voice filled with awe, “You guys turn into digimon.”

“Yeah, it has its advantages, but that does mean we’re always on the frontlines.” Kouichi said with a hint of something else in his voice.

“Well, yeah that comes with being in the business.” Matt said offhandedly

“It comes with being a _Warrior_.” Kouji said in correction.

“We’re on the frontline just like you guys.” T.K argued back.

“I’m sure you think you are but, you guys just find a spot to be away from the action while your digimon fights for you. You don’t have to get your hands dirty.” Kouichi looked into the arena with sad eyes.

“I bet you love gettin-” T.K started

“WATCH YOUR MOUTH BOY!” Akuma may have only been a Tsukaimon but the “ **Purple Fog** ” that threatened to slip out was a clear message.

“Don’t threaten T.K like that.” Patamon was flapping his wings in agitation. Both digimon were about to duke it out when Lady Ophanimon cleared her throat, everyone immediately got quiet. 

“We have been through many trials, be it on the ‘front lines’ or not that doesn't negate what we have accomplished.” Tai attempted to start the conversation again a bit calmer this time.

“No one is trying to diminish your ‘accomplishments’, Tai, well not to your face anyway.” The Chosen gave a wince at that. “But I digress, what Kouji was insinuating was that, yes being a warrior might look fun but, all the extra baggage almost seems to overshadow the rest.” Takuya could see some gears turning in the Chosens’ head and he really didn’t want that.

“Don’t get me wrong, we love our jobs as Legendary Warriors. We don’t regret going to the digital world, most of us changed for the better.” Takuya looked at Kouji then gave a shrug and turned his attention back to the arena signaling the conversation was over.

Kazemon and Oscura were continuing their face off in the air.

“Again, remind me why _I’m_ the glorified escort?” Oscura motioned to Kazemon’s less than solid outfit.

“I just think you're mad because Ranamon could only ever pull off a one piece. Clearly I got the body for it so why not?” Kazemon gave a twirl giggling. “ The boys seem to think so.”

As Kazemon said the Chosen had their mouths hanging agape.

“Can we even consider what she’s wearing, clothes?” Matt said blinking rapidly.

“I'm sure that is more akin to underwear.” Cody said matter of factly.

T.K quickly made to cover up Cody’s eyes. “I don’t think your grandpa would want you to be seeing this.”

Oscura was tired of it however. “That’s it!” She lunged at Kazemon slapping her, “ **Binta!** ” (Don’t ask me why they gave a simple slap an attack name.)

The two digimon went back and forth slapping each other. Oscura even went as far as swinging Kazemon by her hair, tossing her by the spectator area.

“Take that you blond bimbo!”

Kazemon crashed into the shield and let out a yelp. She immediately launched herself back toward Oscura, but not before screaming like a banshee.

“Wow, look at them go.” Tai gave a low whistle.

“I know I shouldn’t be watching this but, I just can’t look away.” Izzy said from besides Tai, having stopped typing on his computer.

Both boys looked at each other, Izzy raised an eyebrow.

Tai gave a slow nod in return.

Down at the center of the field the dust was still clearing. “Even if they can turn into digimon, there’s no way they could’ve survived that!” Davis was bouncing with excitement after he saw the three warriors turn into digimon. His mind began to wonder about how it would be to turn into XVeemon.

“Do you think we might have overdone it?” Mimi couldn’t see through the dust, however it was beginning to clear. Well clear was the wrong word, it was being gathered. Shinya, or rather Baboongamon had gathered the dust into his fist and crushed it.

“Here.” He said with a huff and dropped something into Kumamon's hand. Kumamon opened his palm and gained a massive grin. His eyes sparkled as he turned toward Baboongamon.

“You really know how to make a boy swoon.” Kumamon then, well tried, to give Baboongamon a hug, but the size difference was making it difficult. You could see Baboongamon’s cheek turn just a bit redder than they already were.

Baboongamon simply let out a huff in response. Shinya came to realize he didn’t have much of a vocabulary in this form, he could talk, but he sure wouldn’t be saying anything profound anytime soon. And, wow, he really felt like grooming himself. 

“This is sooooo weird” He thought to himself.

Kumamon took a step back and surprising everyone, ate whatever ever Baboongamon gave him. 

“What is he doing?” Sora was intrigued to say the least.

Kumamon took a deep breath.

Back in the spectator area Kouichi gave a hum. “It’s over now, may your fellow Chosen rest in peace.” He made the motion of a quick prayer. The remaining Chosen looked over at Kouichi and quickly snapped back to the arena.

Right before he spoke, Baboongamon buried himself in the ground in an instant.

“ **Crystal Freeze!** ”

Kumamon let out the breath he took a second earlier freezing over the immediate area. The chosen weren’t prepared as they were standing in an open area without coverage. Togemon and Birdramon being the closest went to protect the Chosen from the incoming blast. Togemon was frozen over and digivolved back to Palmon, Birdramon was a little bit behind her as she was made with fire and launched a wave of flame to try to counter attack, “ **Bir-Flame!** ”.

The icy blast was just too much for the flame as Birdramon was already tired from her earlier fight with Zoe. She too digivolved back into Piyomon, the Chosen were ok only due to the fact of the protective gear being made from a mixture of Chrome Digizoid.

“G-g-g-guys we gotta do something.” Kari was shaking as she was one of the people who had shorts instead of pants and even after she pulled her hood on she was still freezing.

“We need to stop Kumamon!” Davis was yelling for some reason when they were all next to each other.

“Davis, why are you yelling?” Mimi had turned toward the google wearing boy.

“Huh! Mimi, did you say I was yelling, I can’t really hear because my ears are pretty much frozen!” Davis gave a big thumbs up. The other Chosen would have laughed if this was a different situation.

“Geez, it wasn’t even this cold in Moscow. They don’t call him the Warrior of Ice for nothing.” Yolei had complained as Sora was nodding in agreement.

“What about Baboongamon we don’t know where he is either.” Ken had gone to turn to look for him as he was hugging himself, but he soon got his answer. 

Unnoticed by the Chosen while Kumamon was freezing them with his icy blast, Baboongamon was taking care of Paildramon and Silphymon. While Baboongamon buried himself under ground he went deep enough that he wouldn’t be noticed, and went behind both DNA digimon. Once he felt the ground get cold he broke out of the ground and once again went for the ankles and had both digimon stuck in place. 

Both digimon gave a struggle but that just caused them to sink deeper into the hold. “Sorry about this, it’s just business.”

“ **Glide Rocks** ” 

He aimed his stone covered tail at the solar plexus of Silphymon dealing damage to the fusion and since her feet were stuck she hit her head as well. Causing her to dedigivolve into two new smaller digimon. His mind supplied him with Salamon and Poromon. He turned toward Paildramon and walked over to him and pointed his fist in between his eyes.

“ **Mount Stone** ”

The fusion digimon left behind two digimon, the Demiveemon he saw at school and a prickly ice cream cone looking thing, Minomon his mind supplied again. He turned back toward Kumamon and was faced with the eyes of Ken. Having no more options, Ken raised his hands in surrender, the other Chosen followed and their battle was done.

Or so they thought.

Kumamon took in a breath and whispered, “ **Frozen Darts** ”

He shot out six projectiles from his mouth. Each aimed at the Chosen.

Davis was hit in his thigh.

Ken was hit in his side.

Kari had been hit on her right arm.

Yolei was hit on her cheek.

Sora was struck in her left shoulder.

Mimi was hit in her neck.

Each fell to the ground with a thud.

“NOOOOO!” The Chosen in the spectator area shot out of their seats.

Lady Ophanimon leaned back a bit giving a hum. T.K whirled to face the Warriors anger easily seen on his face. “What did he do! Explain!”

Takuya gave a humorless laugh. “He's just doing his job.”

T.K was about to jump on him but Cody held him back, but Matt made no move to stop Tai. Tai had Takuya by his collar.

“His job? Lady Ophanimon said he was just training them, not _hurting_ them, not hurting my little _sister_!” Tai looked furious as he gripped Takuya’s shirt tighter.

“You guys are really still so wet behind the ears.” Takuya let out a sigh. In an instant their roles are reversed, Takuya was holding Tai up by his collar but just with one hand. His other was too busy being engulfed in flames

“You think we all don’t have people on the battlefield with us? Hmm? My _little brother_ just became a warrior not even a week ago and there is a high chance he could _die_ ! You think you can just get by in a _war_ by being nice? I used to think the same thing until I saw _thousands_ of digimon deleted, not sent to the Village of Beginnings, _deleted,_ not coming back. We don’t have the luxury to be playing nice. Tommy is training them to be able to get out of this whole thing alive. You think the Demon Lords are gonna let up on us? They will take every opportunity they have to _kill us_. We are human, we don’t reincarnate once we die, that's it. We only get one chance!” 

Takuya ended his rant by throwing Tai into Matt so he could catch him, but he threw him a little too hard and they both went tumbling to the floor.

“I’m outta here before I blow something up, Lady Ophanimon I will await your further instructions from my house. Tell Shinya I’ll be making dinner cause mom is working late today.” He was walking out but he had flashbacks to the cooking competition. He looked over his shoulder, “On second thought, tell him take out.”

“I’ll go after him, he doesn't know how to get back home anyway. Till next time Lady Ophanimon.” Gennai got up and went to follow the boy.

The Chosen and Warriors fell to silence, it was broken by Cody bringing their attention back to the center. The chosen sat up from where they fell on the ground.

“What happened to us?” Kari was holding her arm where her protective suit was ripped. Same as the other Chosen as they checked the areas they were hit.

“You guys went into shock, It was a complete mental thing. It seems you were never struck before in your time as Chosen. I barely even pierced you skin and you guy doubled over, now that just won’t do. Training is done for today, the results are pretty clear, your digimon aren’t the problem it’s you Chosen. You limit your partners by being, what's the word, easy pickings? Disposable? Not worth a damn in a fight? No, a burden maybe? A distraction? Geez what’s the word?” He turned toward Baboongamon, with a contemplative look on his face.

“ **Weak**.”

It was said in a simple huff, but it carried the weight of a punch to the gut. Both digimon dedigivolved as their fractal codes wrapped around them once again and dispersed, leaving the leather wearing warriors to begin walking over to the spectator area. The Chosen looked down, and Tommy could even hear a little sniffling coming from their Digimon, and some humans too but he won’t say any names.

“Take that back.” Tommy and Shinya looked over their shoulder to see Kari standing with her fist clenched by her side.

“Well one, if I did I would be lying and the warrior of Ice does not do that. And two, or what?” 

Kari did the unexpected as she went over and raised her hand to slap Tommy. Tommy just rolled his eyes. Shinya however wasn’t having any of it. He grabbed the offending hand, eyes looking deadly, and some of the surrounding rubble began to float. He immediately snapped out of it however, the debris dropping to the ground. 

“Kari, I apologize if Tommy hurt your pride or your feelings or whatever, but he was tasked with training us to help in the fight against Lilithmon. You should try to trust the process.”

He let go of her hand. “And I would refrain from trying to strike him when I’m not around, I have a moral conscience, my friend however does not.” He tilted his head down to where Tommy had Romeo, the name of his Frozen Blaster, already drawn and aimed at her stomach. He was sticking his tongue out as he walked away, this time no one made a move to stop him and Shinya. They just went to collect their devolved partners and walked in shame to the spectator area

Tommy hit Shinya on the arm, “That's for saying I don’t have a moral conscience. It’s there, I just only use it when it comes to people I care about. And we could’ve just had Lady Ophanimon heal her.”

They both laughed as they made their way up to the spectator area with the Chosen giving Tommy accusing looks. He ignored them in favor of telling Lady Ophanimon the results of the training.

“It is beyond me how the Chosen Children have survived their careers in the Digital World. If they did not possess somewhat capable digimon, I more than positive that they would have sustained fatal injuries. Even though only a few of the Chosen will be going against Lilithmon directly, we can still anticipate that she will bring a small army with her. So starting tomorrow we will put all the Chosen through a multipurpose training session going over different situations.”

Tommy ended his report by bowing his head and walking over to the remaining Warriors. He looked around and saw their leader was missing. He gave a long sigh.

“What happened?”

“Your ways of training didn’t sit well with the Chosen and it sparked a miniature argument ending with Takuya almost setting Tai on fire.” J.P said, pulling out a string of cloth from his sleeve with Kouichi clapping at the magic trick.

“So, he almost set someone on fire and your sitting doing magic tricks?” Ken was the only Chosen who felt like talking after Tommy’s actions as he himself used to be the ‘bad guy’ so he agreed with the sentiment.

“Takuya has always been a hothead, for him that was just another Monday, or Tuesday, really any day of the week. We should really put him in anger management.” Kouji was sitting by Lady Ophanimon undoing his braided hair.

“What set him off?” Shinya asked, concerned for his older brother. Whenever Takuya got mad it usually led to him doing something incredibly stupid. One time when they were younger, Shinya might have, accidentally on purpose, broke Taukya’s video game because he wouldn’t let him play with it. And let’s just say Takuya was in the hospital for 3 weeks after.

“I said Tommy wasn’t training, he was just hurting my friends.” Tai replied paraphrasing his earlier argument.

“When he mentioned his little sister, that's when Takuya lost it.” Izzy honestly couldn't say he was shocked by the outburst from Takuya . From the notes he’s been taking since the start of the ‘war council’, it was only a matter of time before the opposing views of the two groups turned physical. Izzy was vastly confident in his observation skills, it’s what made him the Crest bearer of Knowledge. He knew Tommy probably ate shards of Chrome Digizoid and waited for the moment to use it against his opponents.

“Wow, so he’s more hung up over the Shinya debacle than I thought.” Tommy turned toward Lady Ophanimon. “Can you bless us with your holy power and heal those who participated in the training, mylady?” Tommy wanted to wrap things up quickly so he could stop the Kanbara from doing something stupid for the umpteenth time.

Lady Ophanimon gave a hum. “If you insist, young Tommy, only because you never cease to bring me entertainment.”

“ **Eden’s Air** ”

Several halos appear from Lady Ophanimon’s outstretched hand. There were six in total, one for each Chosen and their digimon, The halos emitted rainbow colored lights that healed both injuries and their torn clothing. The Chosen mumbled out their thanks being still shaken by the end of their first training session.

As everyone made their move to leave the arena and return home the safety barrier went off again.

“Damnit Kazemon let me go!”

They all turn to see Kazemon pinning a pretty tired looking Osucra to the barrier. Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Is it bad to say I forgot about those two?” Shinya says to Tommy in a whisper.

“Girls!” They both finally stop solely focusing on each other and notice that they were the only two left in the arena, or what’s left of it anyway. “We’re about to leave, can you put a stop to your cat fight for now?”

Both women looked at each other before grumbling their misgivings. They both dedigivolved and thus the first training session came to a close. Gennai came to meet them at the entrance of the arena and guided them back to the living room. The Chosen and the Warriors agreed to meet after school to come back the next day.

A light once again flashed and the teens were dropped onto the soccer field this time there was no dogpile.

“That’s refreshing, never thought we could travel through a non-dog pile,” Yolei said with a sigh of relief.

Turns out the protective gear was only used during dangerous situations as both the three Warriors and the Chosens clothes reverted back to their school uniforms. However that wasn’t a thought in the forefront of their minds as it was noticeably darker than when they went to the Digital World. Shinya looked at his band and let out a scream.

“Mom’s gonna kill me! It’s already 8 o’clock!”

This made others in the group check their phones for missed calls and text messages. Davis got a call at that exact moment. They all scramble and said hasty goodbyes and ran to get back home. Shinya was about to bolt when Kouji stopped him.

“Oh Takuya said your mom was working late. So I don't think she’ll even be there so you can calm down.”

Shinya felt his shoulders sag as he let himself relax. Now his only worry is gonna be trying to calm down Takuya when he gets home, maybe he should ask Tommy for help. He already wanted to talk to him anyway. Shinya went to ask Tommy his question, when he saw him already walking in the direction of his house.

Tommy looked back and waved his hand. “Hurry up, I’m about to leave you here by yourself.”

Shinya ran to catch up with the other boy. Tommy just looked at him expectantly as if he was waiting for him to do something. Shinya just stared back with a clueless look on his face.

“Time to train those powers of yours.” Tommy had a grin on his face. Shinya recoiled a bit, when Tommy said the word ‘train’ that was never a good thing. Apparently his look of horror was evident on his face, because Tommy hit him playfully on the shoulder.

“You're just gonna get us to your house using your powers. The last train already left so it's up to you buddy! Using them above ground is too risky even at night so underground it is.” Tommy had a big grin on his face like he just asked him to tie his shoe or something not dig tunnels under the ground!

Tommy continued however, “You said you can sense positions of people based on the earth right?” Shinya gave a nod, “Ok then focus on the area you know your house is and focus on a really hot point of the ground.” To Tommy’s credit he did have a smooth voice when he was giving directions, he didn’t sound forceful or agitated.

Shinya kneeled down so he could put a hand on the ground. He did as he said and focused on the area his house was in, southwestern of where they were now. He could feel the hum of the plumbing of his house being used, Takuya must be in the shower. He could feel the steps going up to their front door with the four hand prints he and his brother made when they were little. 

Tommy then said to focus on an overly hot spot which he presumed would be thanks to Takuya using his powers. Sure enough there was a moderately warm area the size of a backyard. He pinpointed on the location in his mind then got up, he gave Tommy a nod. Tommy clapped his hand together.

“Well take it away then Shinya.”

Shinya focused again and forced the earth to bend to his will. A small doorway opened up and led down a set of stairs. The pair descended probably six feet into a long straight away. It wasn’t lit so the boys pressed a button on their bands and the flashlight function turned on. The two began to walk down the path. 

“Wow Shinya is this the limits of your imagination?” Tommy examined the corridor with bored eyes. It was simply a hallway made of the earth, no decorations, no cool designs.

“Hey, not everyone has the flair for dramatics that you do Tommy.” Tommy gave a little laugh and shook his head. 

“I know you read comics. Our powers work just like what’s his name? Gre-”

Shinya jumped to cover Tommy’s mouth. “Shh, we don’t have the rights to him or the money for a mention.” Shinya then turned to a random wall and stated in a rehearsed tone.

“ **LetsBeHonestitNeedsToBeDiferent does not own any of the properties mentioned in this story, this is a work of fiction. He's just a highschool senior with a sense of nostalgia and a vivid imagination.”**

Tommy gave Shinya a look but continued anyway. “Anyway, our powers work like his. We are solely limited by our imagination and how well and acutely we can bend our element.”

“So whatever I imagine I can create?” 

Tommy nodded, “Yes in the realm of possibility, you can't make a tornado with rocks but you could start a fire with the right minerals. You also could move the floors so we could get to our destination faster.” 

Shinya got the hint as he began to focus again and began to picture the floor underneath the moving at an increased rate. By the time he opened his eyes he and Tommy were in front of another set of stairs leading to Shinya’s back yard. As the two returned to the surface the house seemed to be intact, no external damage.

Shinya and Tommy nodded to each other as Shinya reached for the door handle. The door slid open with no issue, they made their way into the house. As Kouji had told them no one was home except for Takuya who was lounging on the couch with the TV on. He lifted his head to acknowledge the boys.

“It’s a good thing I got an extra plate of food for you Tommy. But before that go wash up you both smell horrible and look at yourselves!” Takuya was holding his nose for extra effect, Kouji was the one with the nose of a bloodhound not him.

Shinya and Tommy looked at each other and finally noticed that maybe traveling underground wasn’t the best idea, both of their school uniforms were covered in dirt. They both laughed at their state.

“Shinya you go first, I need to talk to your brother for a bit.”. As Shinya turned and went upstairs to take his shower he could’ve sworn he heard some yelling.

“Really Takuya!? You tried to set Tai on fire?” Tommy shot his hands up in disbelief

“It’s not my fault he was being annoying.”

“Annoying?”

“Yeah he was thinking only about himself, like we all don’t have our worries.”

“So you tried to set him on fire.”

“NO, that was just for intimidation value.”

“Izzy said you got mad when he brought up his little sister.”

Takuya dropped his head. So Tommy continued, “So you _are_ still upset about Shinya being the Warrior of Earth.”

Takuya shot up, “Of course I am! He’s my little brother and I want him to be normal! Not some messed up kid because he has to _kill_ . You know I would never want this for him. What if I can’t protect him? You remember the first time I became BurningGreymon. It was a massacre, the surrounding village was burned to the ground. Luckily the others were there to collect the data to send them to Primary Village but, what’s even worse, I had you in the castle for 3 weeks. I couldn’t even look at you again without thinking you would hate me, you thought of me, _still_ think of me as an older brother figure. And yet I broke several of your ribs, your arm, and the scar you had just barely gone away so there wasn’t permanent damage!”

Tommy’s hand went to his eyebrow where BurningGreymon had slashed him. Tommy remembers the situation very clearly. Tommy was still foolish back then, he just wanted Takuya to stop hurting, he just wanted his new older brother back. He remembers the bone crushing grip, the claw coming down his face stopping as his tear hit the hand crushing him. He remembers the scream as he was let go and BurningGreymon walking over to a boulder hitting it as a form of self punishment. He remembered seeing the fractal code dispersed as he blacked out and saw Takuya reach for him, then hesitate, then run in the opposite direction.

“Takuya-” He starts, but before he can comfort him they hear Shinya walking back down the stairs.

“ _Not a word_!” He whispered yelled.

Shinya walked down the stairs with his monkey onesie on. He was laughing to himself, “Who knew how ironic this would be.” Shinya made his way back over to the couch as Takuya had on his signature grin holding out his take out. “Tommy the showers open so you can go now, and can we talk afterwards I have some more questions about the digital world.”

Takuya did a spit take with his drink. It didn’t go unnoticed by Shinya, who gave his brother a suspicious gaze. “Something I should know?”

Takuya shook his head vehemently. Shinya leaned in closer. Takuya shot up his hands. “No, I just thought Tommy already explained the Digital World to you?”

“Yeah, but that was the Sparknotes version. I’m looking for some fine details. That won’t be a problem would it, big bro?” Shinya finished by walking off into the kitchen.

Takuya nearly snapped his neck as he looked toward Tommy. “Not a-”

“I know! Geez.”

Tommy walked up the stairs as he picked up some sleepwear he had stashed at the Kanbara house. He sent a text to his mom, telling her he was at the Kanbara household. As he stepped into the shower he couldn’t help but think as he was left alone with his thoughts. Deep down he didn’t know why but Tommy _really_ didn’t like the idea of lying to Shinya. Beyond being the Warrior of Ice, who was known for being transparent, honest, pure, and fiercely loyal, it just didn’t sit right with him. Ever since they first met they were inseparable, where you found one, you found the other. Shinya was his first friend outside of the Warriors and he’s always felt drawn to him.

Kumamon presents the idea that it was possibly an unconscious response to a possible warrior candidate. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, but Tommy shook his head still. Korikakumon’s advice was to bring Shinya a present as an apology for lying to him then to pray for forgiveness. Korikakumon, contrary to popular belief, didn’t like fighting, however he has a duty to protect the digital world. That’s why he would sometimes stop to pray during battle because that habit had transferred over. 

Korikakumon had once asked him why he never tried to find out who Korikakumon was praying to, Tommy simply said it seemed like a very personal deal if Korikakumon didn’t just tell him who it was. Tommy did say he had theories but he wouldn’t betray his spirits trust like that. Korikakumon only gave a huff as a response but his braids swung like a dog’s tail.

Tommy knew Takuya was really torn up about the BurningGreymon ordeal, even though Tommy had repeatedly told him he had nothing to be sorry about. He reached up to touch his eyebrow.

“I hope this doesn't come back to bite me anytime soon.” Tommy turned off the water and slipped into his polar bear onesie. He begrudgingly made his way back down to the living room where he ate his takeout until Shinya dragged him to his room. Takuya shot him one last look of warning from the couch.

Both boys plopped down on Shinya’s bed facing each other. Shinya fixed Tommy with a stare and Tommy began to fidgets with his hands. 

“What’s the deal with Lady Ophanimon?”

Tommy froze with shock at the question, he quickly swallowed the knot in his throat; this definitely wasn’t the question he thought he would be answering. “What do you mean? She’s a holy digimon who brought us to the digital world.”

Shinya’s curiosity wasn’t so easily squashed. He shook his head. “You guys walk on eggshells when she’s around. I know she’s royalty and deserves certain things in terms of respect, but I just have a feeling there’s something more going on I don’t know about.”

Tommy was looking anywhere but Shinya’s eyes right now. Takuya said he couldn’t tell him about BurningGreymon but he didn’t say Lady Ophanimon was off limits. What she does isn’t _that_ bad. She was a bit bipolar, distant, and controlling but the Warriors always chalked it up to stress, she was trying to rule a whole world by herself. The spirits themselves were very tight lipped when it came to the Celestial Angels.

“You're not wrong when you say we walk on eggshells. She’s difficult to say the least, but with good reason, we hope,” Shinya raised an eyebrow in question, so Tommy didn’t want to elaborate but Shinya does need to know. “When we first got to the Digital World she was just ‘The lady in the phone’ she was rather aloof as it was. She gave us advice sparingly and help was non-existent, if we hadn't run into Bokomon and Neemon we would’ve been walking around blind and clueless. 

When we finally met her physically it was mid battle which didn’t present for a good first impression as it was. Then bam the first thing she says to us is, ‘To think my selected Warriors had trouble defeating such lowly darkness’. Zoe was the only one conscious and she found it odd but didn’t have time to dwell on it. She was still weak from being imprisoned but she still gave Cherubimon a run for his money, she was defeated however and reverted to a digi-egg we had to take care of! Once she hatched with Seraphimon and a purified Cherubimon they quickly reached mega level and took over ruling again.

However you would think this would turn the tide in our war against evil, no the Celestial Angels basically told us we have to finish what we started. They would send us on missions here and there stomping out rebels and petty conflicts. Just in time for Lucemon to show up again through the Royal Knights. 

Lady Ophanimon blamed us as not being _thorough_ enough, she said no warriors of mine would be so careless. So she sent us again on another journey to defeat Lucemon and his Royal Knights. As more and more of the world began to become a big ball of swish cheese, the more her suppressed emotions began to come to the surface. Seraphimon was too preoccupied with Bokomon and Neemon, and Cherubimon locked himself away after being ashamed that he was controlled by the Darkness. She started to become unstable at times even when she tried to up keep her ‘Holy Mother’ title. It was really taxing for us.

It also dawned on me that I don’t think the Celestial Angels were mad that Cherubimon was turned evil, but more about the fact that it was Darkness that controlled him. I think there might be some elemental prejudice going on like I’m pretty sure the Celestial digimon are racists. They always treated Kouichi slightly differently than the rest of us even though he proved himself plenty of times and even after he _died_ in the final battle with Lucemon.

So yes we walk on eggshells around her.”

Tommy realized he just word-vomited to Shinya, to his credit Shinya just sat and listened to him talk the whole time never interrupting him. Tommy was searching Shinya’s face for any hint of a reaction, a muscle twitch, anything that meant a response. Suddenly he felt very warm and he thought to himself, this didn’t feel so bad. 

His chin rested on the shoulder of one Shinya Kanbara as he was enveloping a confused Tommy Himi in a hug. “Shinya what are you doing?”

“I’m giving you a hug”

“I see that, but why?”

“Cause you’re crying idiot.”

Tommy was beyond confused now. Then he noticed that his cheeks were indeed wet, and now he could feel more tears falling down his face. Turns out he was more bothered by the situation than he originally thought.

“Oh, that’s weird I thought I was the Warrior of Ice not Water.” He gave a weak laugh.

Shinya squeezed him a bit tighter as he also gave a chuckle. Tommy returned the hug as he thought to himself again.

Yeah this _really_ didn’t feel too bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you spot the reference?
> 
> Ok so in terms of pacing for the story, I write in a 20 page Google doc before I move onto a new one. So going forth every new Google Doc will be a day in terms of the story. so TSDTRW-5 Will be Day 3 until Lilithmon appears and so on until TSDTRW-7 until Lilithmon appears. That being said I'm sure the Docs will be turned into multiple chapters so weekly you guys will possible be getting multiple chapters instead of one, with the multiple ones ranging from 4,000-5,000 words each. But know the multi chapter drops will span a full day.
> 
> Lilithmon will not be solved in a day just think of this as a countdown until she appears, I think I want to make Lilithmon's ordeal last around 10-15 chapters I have a lot planned for when any of the Demon Lords make appearances.
> 
> Well I think thats all I have but thanks again for joining me on this journey and tune in next time for TSDTRW.


	13. Are Side Characters Really Side Characters?

Shinya woke up feeling trapped, but a nice kind of trapped. He was placed flushed against the body of a certain Warrior of Ice. He thought back to their last conversation about Lady Ophanimon. It honestly threw Shinya for a loop when in the middle of Tommy’s word-vomit, cause Tommy did it more often then he would admit, he saw tears begin to fall from Tommy’s eyes.

Tommy hasn’t cried not once in the entire time they’ve known each other. In the beginning he was really one note never going too far on either end of the emotional spectrum. As time went on Tommy let himself loosen up, although he really only showed it to Shinya. So when he saw tears rolling down Tommy’s face his first instinct was to make the foreign objects stop.

A little after he felt Tommy hug him back which made Shinya feel really giddy inside. Like everything in the world was as right as rain. Soon after the boys fell asleep still embracing each other.

Shinya looked over to his clock and let out a shriek.

“Tommy! Get up, we have 15 minutes to get dressed!”

To Tommy’s credit he was instantly up and was on the move to grab his school uniform that was neatly folded on the dresser next to Shinya’s.

“Hey, did you wash our uniforms?”

“No I was with you all night.”

At that moment the door to Shinya’s room burst open.

“No, it was me, but that doesn't matter right now you better hurry up before we miss the train!”

Takuya again had his tie crooked, so Tommy got up to fix it again, “Fine give me a minute.” Tommy grabbed his things and walked to the bathroom and exactly a minute later, he returned looking as polished as ever.

Now both sets of eyes were on Shiya as he was still sitting in his monkey onesie. He scrambled off the bed and got dressed quickly. The boys, now finally dressed, made their way down stairs to packed lunches laid out for all three.

“Thank you Mrs. Kanbara.”

“Thanks Mom.”

The kind hearted lady waved the three boys off as she closed the door and went to nurse a cup of tea. She looked down at the cup to see the tea stock as fallen and no longer standing. She brought a hand to her face in worry. “Oh that can’t be a good sign, I hope the boys have a good day.”

-

As the boys got off the train and made their way toward school they continued the conversation they were having on the train.

“I hope you haven’t broken the Chosen Tommy, they didn’t all seem too bad.” Shinya said, swinging his bag around.

“If that was all it took to break them, then they’re in for a bumpy ride. I merely pointed out my observations.” Tommy shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“I just know Tai better keep himself in check before I decided to take a bit off the top of his mane of hair.” Takuya still hadn’t calmed down from yesterday it seems. Though his frustration was fairly subdued compared to yesterday.

“Do you think they’ll come back ready to train or they’ll throw in the towel?” Shinya was tapping his chin as he thought aloud and the group turned the corner. However in contrast to yesterday they were the ones bumping into people, or rather a girl. Thanks to Tommy’s quick thinking instead of the poor girl meeting the ground, she was caught instead.

Tommy had the girl in one of those fancy ballroom dips Shinya would see when he watched those dancing shows on TV. The girl in question had a deep blush on her cheeks as she scanned Tommy’s face. Her hand was on Tommy’s bicep, which really irked Shinya. She had long black hair that was in a low ponytail with a butterfly pin much like Zoe’s but instead of pink was a pretty shade of violet. And by all terms of social standards was  _ gorgeous _ , Zoe was still better looking in Shinya’s opinion but she was definitely a close second. God was certainly picking favorites with this one.

She wore the Tsukishima High uniform as well. Tommy finally, because he sure was holding that position for a long time, brought the girl back up to her feet.

“Hey, my bad are you ok?” He scratched the back of his neck in the  cute way he normally does when we’re alone and he does something stupid and he feels embarrased.

She just gives a laugh most girls would call ‘cutesy’, not too hearty but also not too shallow. He brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face behind her ear.

“Oh no I should be the one apologizing I was the one distracted instead of looking ahead.” The girl fumbled with her words a bit not really making eye contact.

Now Shinya has heard many of voices in his lifetime but, this girl, this girl had the voice of an angel. Or that of a smooth temptress who knew exactly what to say. Shinya couldn’t really tell which. Tommy just gave a sheepish smile asking for her name.

“It’s Mari Yuko, but you can just call me Mari. I’m actually in your class, maybe we could hang out sometime?” She gave a small smile. Even though she could stand on both feet, Mari still had her hand on Tommy’s arm. She even had the  _ audacity  _ to keep it there as she joined them on they’re walk to school.

“Shinya’s you ok? You're making a weird face. Are you constipated?” Takuya’s joke was ill timed in Shinya’s angered opinion.

“I’m fine Takuya, just peachy.” Shinya shoved his hands in his pockets and kept quiet for the rest of the walk to school. By the time Takuya left to go to his class Shinya felt like a third wheel. He was the third wheel all of a sudden when this ‘Mari’ chick came outta nowhere.

What made Shinya even worse was that Tommy didn’t even seem to mind the extra attention. He  _ never _ opened up to someone right away. It took Shinya  _ forever _ trying to get Tommy to laugh at one of his jokes, but Mari can tell him one and suddenly he can’t stop wheezing!

They enter the class and Mari still hasn’t retracted herself from Tommy’s arm. Once they walk in she has to so Tommy can sit down, Shinya finally thinks the girl will be gone but, nope, she’s still standing by Tommy’s desk brushing her hair behind her ear and blushing.

Shinya was about to tell her off when the teacher told everyone to take their seats and open their books to some random chapter. Shinya was sure his troubles would be over now and he wouldn’t have to worry about Mari anymore. Well he was partially right, now that Mari left there was room for another problem. 

The surrounding Chosen were very tight-lipped today in class, looking distraught and troubled. The only one answering questions was Ken and even then he kept his answers short and simple. Kari hung her head down low as T.K was whispering something comforting words to him. Even Davis who up till this point has been nothing but rambunctious was resting his head in his hands with his eyebrows furrowed.

Shinya leaned over to Tommy whispering to him. “I think you broke them.”

Tommy snickered, “I was just telling them what I observed, I can’t control how they would react. It’s up to them whether or not they want to change for the better or not.”

T.K had overheard their conversation and shot them both glares from his seat. Tommy just shot him with a finger gun and gave him a wink, T.K gave a visual shudder. Shinya shot him a sympathetic smile since after all they were still on the basketball team together.

The teacher decided to give the students a break before lunch. The chosen had pushed their desks together and started to discuss the events of yesterday. 

“Weak!?” Davis whispered to the other chosen as if the word was foreign to him.

“Exactly! Who is he to decide that?” T.K said with a hurump. Deciding not to focus on said boy who was a mere six feet away from them.

“I think the guy who handed us our asses yesterday without breaking a sweat.” Ken was as upset as everyone else but he knew he couldn’t argue with facts. Their digimon put up a good fight but honestly they were doomed from the start. It was evident when the Warriors didn’t even need to digivolve to beat their champion forms and a weak ultimate level. Really cemented the fact when the  _ new  _ Warrior was able to take down not one, but two DNA digimon that were of the ultimate level.

“He was so rude and condescending about it. He listed off all those names just to settle on weak, what was he trying to accomplish? I don’t regret trying to slap him.” Kari was a mixture of sad and furious, how dare he say they were weak. He had no idea what they’ve been through. 

“But really Kari, slapping him? You were going to slap a guy who can easily defeat powerful digimon, what did you expect to happen?” Ken was shaking his head in disbelief. Did she expect him to not do anything to just sit there and think about his actions.

“I expected him to sit there and think about his actions!”

Ken internally facepalmed.

“Well it's a good thing Shinya stopped you then guys you could’ve been shot.” No one saw it coming as she drew back and the gun was pointed at her stomach.

“I wouldn’t have really shot me would he?” Kari was asking no one in particular, because they all knew the answer. He would with no qualms about it.

“Yes I would, but don’t take it to heart.” The sudden interruption and answer to the question startled the four chosen. He had placed a hand on Kari’s shoulder and looked around at the other three. He pointed to his ear.

“Heightened hearing, not thing can hide from these ears of mine. Interesting topic of conversation.” He began to walk off with Shinya in tow and he glanced over his shoulder giving a wave. 

“Same time today, try not to be late.” Tommy didn’t stay to see their reactions so Shinya just bowed and went to catch up with his best friend. Nowadays it seems like Tommy is being more of the sadist than he claims Koichi to be. Maybe that's why Tommy and Koichi were so close they both were closted sadists.

“So where are we gonna eat lunch today? Courtyard, the field, the roof, any place is fine to me.” Shinya was just glad he got Tommy alone again. Hopefully that Mari had her fill of Tommy already.

“Probably the roof. I'm sure the others are there already.” 

He checked his lunch box mom had packed and realized they didn’t have anything to drink. “Hey Tommy I’m going to get something to drink, do you want anything?” Tommy dug out a coin from his pocket and tossed it to him.

“Just strawberry milk, I’ll be waiting here so we can go to the roof together.” Tommy flashed him that smile of his and Shinya returned it with earnest. Shinya made his way down the hall to the only set of vending machines in the school. Luckily the line was non-existent with just one person in front of him.

Shinya swears he could hear a growling of sorts in his head. Baboongamon seemed to be wary of the guy for some odd reason. Maybe it was sign to stay away from him but right now he had to get the drinks for him and Tommy.

He was about a half a foot taller than Shinya with a nice head of white hair that had a black streak in it. His toned body couldn't be hidden with his school uniform. It sort of reminded him of J.P now that he started boxing again, he looked to the guys hands and surely enough he had his hand wrapped in bandages. He keeps looking at the vending machine with a sense of both wonder and confusion.

Shinya was getting tired of waiting for this guy to use the vending machine so he decided to intervene.

“Hey, have you ever seen a vending machine before?” The guy made a noise like he did something wrong and was caught red handed, but it turned to a chuckle as he turned around.

Now let’s stop the story right here. Have you guys just ever seen someone for the first time and your body just stops functioning altogether? Like not breathing, not moving, not thinking, just staring. That is what our dear friend Shinya was going through at this moment. 

“Wow.”

There wasn’t much else to say but wow. This guy, no correction, this  _ hunk _ was absolutely gorgeous. He had the face of a model who would be making at least six figures. He had a band-aid on his nose that somehow added to the features on his face, and by god his eyes were the color of amber. At this point Shinya realizes he's just standing there not saying anything but simply trying to memorize this guy's features.

He let out another chuckle. “Yeah I get that a lot from where I’m from”

Shinya blinked and shook his head, getting out of his thoughts. “So about the vending machine thing…”

He scratched the back of his neck and gave a toothy smile, man they sure were white, just like someone else he knew. Shinya wondered who that was as all he saw and thought about at the moment was Mr. Gorgeous standing in front of him. He heard a growl again from somewhere but he couldn’t really tell.

“I come from a small village actually so we really didn’t have technology like that until around last year when I got my sports scholarship that I got to the city. So I still get a bit confused from time to time.”

Wow so he must be a really good boxer than if he was on a scholarship, maybe J.P knew something about the guy, whatever his name is. Oh yeah, he should probably ask his name. “Oh wow, that neat here let me help you with the vending machine. What did you wanna buy?”

“Just strawberry milk please.” Shinya vaguely remembered someone asking about a strawberry milk but he brushed it out of his mind. 

He pushed the button for the strawberry milk which turned out to be the last one in the machine as he added the drink choice of his own.

“Here I just paid for yours too since I happened to have enough.” Shinya handed him the drink and he received a smile in return. What happened next made Shinya doubt if he was even still in reality anymore. The guy, he still didn’t know his name, reached for Shinya’s head and patted it. Shinya was sure his face was the darkest shade of red possible.

“Oh wow you're cute to boot and now you’ve paid for my strawberry milk, how can I ever repay you cuite?” Again there was a growl somewhere in the distance but he could barely hear it so now he just let it go.

The shade definitely got darker.

“The name is Shinya Kanbara and you don’t have to repay me, consider it your first gift from a new friend.” Shinya didn’t know what possessed him to say they’re friends but he did anyway.

The guy's smile grew wider and he held out his hand for a handshake. “The names Rai, Rai Kami”

Rai Kami, that was definitely a name that fit Rai indeed. He looked like a god walking among men as it was. Well now that they were friends they had to do friend stuff.

“Why don’t we exchange numbers so we can chat and stuff outside of school?” Shinya pulled out his phone and so did Rai. Shinya then had a thought, did Rai even know how to work a phone? Did he even have one?

“Yes I know how to work a phone and yes I have one. It was the first thing I learned to use once I got here, it's how my sponsor contacts me after all.” He said with a small chuckle that Shinya was finding increasingly more harmonious as Rai kept doing it.

“Ok well here’s mine, maybe we can hang out sometime after school if you would like, maybe I can show you around the city?” Again Shinya didn’t know what possessed him but he just offered Rai anyway.

“Yeah, I would like that very much, see ya Shinya. I’ll be sure to text you.” Rai gave a wave as he started to drink his strawberry milk, leaving Shinya thinking about the last 5 minutes. That's when all of a sudden he remembered he came down to get drinks for him and  _ Tommy _ . He ran back to the spot he left Tommy in to find him not standing there.

Tommy had looked back into the classroom since that was close to where the two last talked. Shinya knew he must have been gone a long time but he didn’t think Tommy would ditch him or not wait for him. Tommy wasn’t like that, one time in junior high, he waited for Shinya to finish his cleaning duties because it started raining and he knew Shinya forgot his umbrella.

So when he walked into the classroom and heard the whispers he couldn’t help but try to listen in.

“Did you see Tommy and  _ Mari _ ?”

“Yeah I didn’t think Tommy would go for girls like her.”

“Yeah, but I would too if I only knew what she looked like now, it’s like she had a whole new body over winter break.”

“Haha, she used to be so  _ ugly  _ but now look at her she’s beautiful.”

“I don’t know what kinda deal she made but, god, can I have what she’s getting?”

The group had stopped gossiping and went back to eating, just nameless faces in the classroom again. Shinya heard that growl again but it definitely wasn’t in his head this time. He felt the low rumble in his throat but refused to believe the sound was coming from him. Shinya Kanbara was sitting in the entrance of the classroom during lunch time, growling.

On a lighter note Baboongamon gives his growl a nine out of ten went it came to intimidation, He said work on the face as well to bring it to a ten. Shinya was glad his partner found it funny that Shinya was growling like an animal. Shinya was walking out of the classroom not knowing where he was heading.

Shinya was racing through his thoughts trying to find an explanation as to why Tommy Himi thought it was okay to  _ ditch  _ him for a  _ girl _ ! They had never had this problem before Shinya was the only one Tommy let see his inner emotions. Then a girl he just met for the first time today came along and he was ready to ditch his best friend of three years? They were getting about that age that a different head began to think for the body but he refused to believe Tommy would let that happen.

Shinya already had that problem, that’s why he was always trying to impress Tommy. He let his other head decide that Tommy was the one it wanted to pursue! So why does this girl think she can be all buddy bud-.

Hold up.

Wait a minute.

Oh yeah thats right, Shinya Kanbara has feelings for his best friend Tommy Himi.


	14. Zoe Tries Not To Summon a Tornado

The Warriors that were in their last year of high school all sat on the roof lazing around enjoying the nice day outside and their lunch time. Koichi and Takuya were playing a game of look over there, while Zoe and Kouji were discussing club activities. A really nice and serene moment that the Warriors have come to find a special occasion that doesn't usually last long.

The Warriors were right and the door for roof access busted open.

Kouji looked down at his band and sighed. “Wow, ten minutes and 27 seconds, we almost beat our last record of ten minutes and _30_ seconds.”

The person to disrupt their peace was none other than the youngest Kanbara sibling.

“Oh so can I keep counting then?”

Kouji looked again, Shinya was crying or at least _very_ close to it.

“27 seconds it is then.”

Shinya stomped over to them and plopped down next to Zoe who instantly went to comfort him. He proceeded to speak so fast his words mashed together.

“TommyditchmetotodayatlunchforagirlhejustmettodayandI’mprettysureI’mcrushingontheguybad.OhandIIgrowlnowapperntly.”

The older warriors just stared at the boy trying to decipher what he was trying to say, although Takuya didn’t really need to hear what he said because he was already fuming.

“So who do I need to set on fire?” Takuya had a murderous glint in his eyes that the other warriors had only seen a select few times. This however made Shinya laugh and take a deep breath to calm himself. He lifted from where Zoe was comforting him and got a defiant look on his face.

“No matter how awesome I bet it would be to see you two fight it out, as I honestly don’t know who would come out on top, I don’t want you to try to set Tommy on fire.”

“Already tried.”

Shinya gasped at the warriors scooting back a little, the Warriors just laughed.

“It was my idea. I'm sorry, I just wanted to see what was the stronger force, Ice or Fire?” Koichi didn’t look sorry in the slightest.

“But why would Takuya need to set Tommy on fire?” Zoe was curious as she hadn't seen the two apart not once, and they weren’t arguing when they were together so that threw her for a loop.

Shinya puffed his cheeks out as he must’ve been thinking about what Tommy ‘did’, which they still don’t know what ‘it’ is exactly.

“We can’t help if you don’t talk to us Shinya.” Koichi gave his voice an edge of softness, trying to get the boy to open up.

“He ditched me after I went to get us drinks.”

Now to anyone else that would seem like the pettiest thing to be mad about, but the Warriors knew that Tommy was a _stickler_ about time management and commitments. Takuya instantly lost the fire fueling his anger which left him with just a confused stare.

“Tommy ditched you? As in Tommy Himi?”

Shinya gave a small nod.

“In what parallel world have we dropped into! This is the guy who waited for you after cleaning duty so he could walk you home in the rain just so you wouldn’t get sick, _knowing_ we had a meeting that same day. If you can’t say anything good about him, at least you can’t say he isn’t loyal.”

The other warriors nodded in agreement.

Shinya thought otherwise.

“Do you even know why he ditched you?” Kouji felt like there was more to the story, this didn’t sound like Tommy at all.

“Maybe I’ll ask _Mari_ next time I see her.” A few pebbles were floating around Shinya at this point causing Koichi to try and calm the boy down as he was the other one immediately next to him and in danger of being hit, again.

“Who’s Mari?” The warrior of Darkness was talking calmly trying to coax the younger boys emotions back to a manageable level.

“She’s this girl we bumped into on the way to school this morning. She almost fell, but Tommy caught her in time. She was clinging on to him for the rest of the walk to school. I honestly didn’t think anything of it, I doubt Tommy was interested anyway he was just being polite.”

Shinya gave a scoff. “Of course you don’t see anything wrong with this, you're the densest guy on the planet,” He turned toward the other warriors in an attempt to tell the story the right way. (I kinda wrote myself into that one, sorry not sorry.)

“She basically _threw_ herself at him, with no shame whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong it's not like she doesn't have any kinda appeal, she's stunning, doesn’t beat Zoe in my opinion however.” 

That got a big thumbs up from the blonde.

“You could tell from the start of the interaction that she had nefarious intentions. I mean she never let go of his bicep never letting go she practically coiled herself around his arm pressing herself against him, and he just let her do it! She would say something to him every other second and he would _laugh_ , do you know how long it took for me to get him to laugh at my jokes? Forever! Now this big busted black haired bimbo is trying to _seduce_ my best friend! She won;t even leave him alone now they are eating lunch together!”

Shinya was now red in the face with anger and the pebbles were floating again. He did feel better now that he finally said his thoughts out loud about the situation.

“OK, that’s a lot to unpack.” Kouji leaned back and let out a whistle.

“Shinya I don’t think she was trying to seduce Tommy. Yeah she was a little close, but maybe she just was trying to thank him for helping her?” Takuya was trying to rationalize his brother's crazy delusions about the girl.

“No, before I got here I went back to class looking for him and I overheard some rumors that Mri used to be ugly and she looks 100 times better now. If I became the second hottest chick in school,” Another thumbs up from Zoe. “I would be throwing myself at guys if I finally had the chance.”

“I don’t think those rumors are true Shinya. People always hate on the better looking because they envy their good looks.” Kouji wasn’t really one for rumors as he was always keen on finding out the truth that always came to light. Plus people don’t change that quickly over such a short amount of time.

“Why does this bother you so much Shinya, I didn’t know you had a claim on Tommy?” Zoe wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, while the other warriors waited for Shinya’s answer or at least the admittance to what they knew all along.

Shinya made a series of incoherent noises before he opened his mouth. “I don’t-.” He was interrupted by a ping from his phone, eyes drawing to it. Shinya pulled it out and checked the message, a blush quickly growing on his face. He quickly typed in a reply to the text and put his phone away completely dismissing the previous question.

Takuya cleared his throat to get Shinya’s attention back. “Who was that Shinya? Was it Tommy?”

Shinya shook his head and spoke timidly. “No, it was Rai. He was asking me about where I was taking him first as his … tour guide.” Shinya looked away with a small blush.

“What was that part before tour guide Shinya, I don’t think we heard you?” Koichi began to poke at Shinya’s side to get the words out of him. Shinya was swatting at his hand trying to get away.

“OK ok Koichi stop, he said ‘his cute tour guide’, geez.” This made the warriors pause. Wait wasn’t Tommy and Shinya endgame? Why was Shinya letting another guy flirt with him when he was _clearly_ crushing on Tommy?

“I think maybe Yoyogi Park? Just a nice stroll around the park, we could go after training today! What do you guys think?” Shinya turned toward his friends with a hopeful look in his eyes. The older warriors didn’t even know what to say to the younger member and luckily they didn’t have to as the bell rang for them to get back to class. 

The elder warriors made a dash back to their classroom in an attempt to think about what just happened on the roof. They made it back to their collective desks looking exhausted and drained.

“So what are we gonna do? Smoki can’t be broken up that easily! We have to do something!” Zoe was the biggest shipper of the two youngest warriors. Yet here they are branching off in two different directions so suddenly.

“Maybe we should just let this play out, if Smoki was meant to be they will find their way back to each other.” Koichi was also panicking about the sudden developments around the pairing but he was always, though he wouldn’t admit it, a sucker for true love stories.

Their conversation came to a stop as the teacher walked in with two new students. The chosen turned towards the warriors with questioning looks. The warriors just shook their heads or gave a shrug of the shoulders.

“Welcome back class we have gotten some late transfer students please treat them with care. Why don’t you introduce yourselves.” The teacher handed them the piece of chalk as he moved to the side. 

They were both girls. The first one to write her name on the board was short and blue haired.

“Heya, My name is Miny Junsui, please take care of me!” Miny was a hyperactive girl, one could tell as she kept shifting from one foot to the other and the energy that exuded from her introduction. If Miny was hyperactive then the blond girl next to her was hypoactive. She was completely still and was very calm.

“Yuno Izon, please take care of me.” Her voice had no emotion behind it yet it carried something to it, weight maybe power? 

The teacher motioned to seats next to Zoe by the window which the girls made their way too. As they sat down and got settled the teacher began to teach the lesson. Miny had other plans however, she turned toward Zoe and tapped her shoulder.

“Hey I’m Miny what’s your name?”

Zoe was wary of the eagerness of this Miny girl, she seemed way too enthusiastic. However Zoe was never one to be rude so she gave her name back anyway.

“Zoe Orimo-.” She was cut off.

“Oh that’s a nice name, did you know my last name means ‘pure’? My friends always say that’s because I act like a child most of the time and that I need to mature, but I disagree. I mean yeah I bounce around alot but I’m one of the smartest amongst my friends so I feel like I make up for my childish behavior.”

Zoe just let the new girl ramble on about her life and her friends as she tried to listen to the lesson the teacher was giving. Zoe prided herself on her lady-like behavior but Miny was really starting to grate on her nerves. She was about to shut her up when suddenly she stopped in her tracks.

“Hey Zoe, you sure do smell familiar, like a nice summer breeze.” The warriors all froze in whatever they were doing. Koichi even broke the pencil he was writing with.

“Oh is that so, thanks for the compliment Miny. Why don’t we listen to the teacher for the rest of class and we can talk later.” Zoe had to stop this conversation now. Miny finally started paying attention to the teacher and Zoe finally got a chance to spare a glance at Kouji who gave her a questioning look.

“Did you take your suppressors?”

“Yeah, I’ve never missed a day.”

“Well did you put on perfume or something today?”

“No.”

Kouji let out a rather loud sigh that got them some stares. When Kouji found out that when the warriors had digivolved they developed a scent that was trackable by some digimon, he worked with some Wisemon and Datamon to make some suppressors so their identities couldn’t be found out through smell.

So what was up with this Miny girl?

The rest of class went by pretty mundane till the bell signaling the end of school rang and everyone began to pack up and head for the door. Zoe being one of them seeing as tennis was cancelled for today due to the coach being sick. She finally thought she could relax till training began for the Chosen when the storm of energy that was Miny came bouncing toward her.

“Zoe, Zoe, we should walk down to the gates together.” 

Zoe wanted to refuse, she really did, but interestingly enough Kazemon said she actually liked Miny saying she reminded her of a Tinkermon she used to know. So Zoe internally sighed and gave the bluenette a small smile.

“Sure.”

The blunette bounced around cheering as she turned to Yuno who was walking toward the duo. Apparently they were a package deal, Yuno gave Zoe a closed off smile she knew all too well. One Zoe used to use when she only knew a bunch of people, never really having true friends like the other warriors.

Seeing as everyone else had clubs to get too it was just Zoe, Miny and Yuno. The girls make their way down to the shoeboxes and begin to change their shoes when they see Mari walk past to her box changing quickly and fast walking to the door. Zoe had trained her eyes on her and made a move to talk to the girl Miny and Yuno still in tow.

Zoe grabbed the girls arm spinning her around getting a look at her face. Mari was giggling to herself with a wide smile on her face. Not even the sudden turn stopped her incessant giggles, like she was in her own world.

“They all love me, they all won’t stop looking at me, I know they all want me, but I already got the one for me, Tommy Himi.”

Zoe would like to hope that her face of disgust didn’t show for very long on her face. “Hey, snap out of it, I’m trying to talk to you.” She snapped in front of the girl a few times trying to get her attention. Mari finally saw Zoe in front of her and her face instantly became one of a pompous attitude.

“Wow, I didn’t know they let freaks into this school. You should be lucky I haven’t reported you to the police for trying to dirty my beauty.”

She shook Zoe off of her and tried to turn away but it seems Yuno somehow made her way over to the opposite side blocking her way. Who would’ve thought her speaking for the first time since her introduction would be to Mari.

“Where is your pride in your maidenhood? Being excited about having the eyes of countless men on you. But then again you have always been this way, you get a kick out being able to seduce men without fail. Even going after my partner once just to prove you can, and yet you failed, you’re used goods.”

Zoe didn’t know what was going on at this point, she just wanted to ask why she was going after Tommy and now Yuno was reading Mari. Zoe was starting to get agitated as she wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise. Miny was oblivious to the whole situation as she kept trying to get Zoe’s attention.

“Zoe, remember when I said you smelled earlier, I hope that didn’t come across as rude or anything I was just trying to say you smelt good and like the breezes you could find during the springtime. I don’t I just feel oddly familiar to me for some reason. But maybe I’m just imagining things, Zoe? Hey, Zoe, you look a little mad you’re frowning and stuff.”

Zoe was using every ounce of self control not to summon a tornado and take out anyone standing in a 5 mile radius, which just happened to be the whole campus. Kazemo frowned upon the idea but Zephyrmon found the prospect very satisfying. Her attention was brought back to Mari and Yuno as their conversation got louder.

“I don’t even know who you are! I’m not used goods and I’ve never tried to talk to your ‘partner’. I’m surprised someone as ugly as you would even have a partner. And like I said Tommy is the _only_ one for me!”

With that she stormed off in the direction of the basketball courts, leaving the remaining girls just standing there. Yuno just glared daggers at Mari's everso disappearing back.

“Miny lets go, we have other matters to attend to. Thank you Zoe for walking us down to the gate that was very nice of you. I hope to see you at school tomorrow.” Yuno gave a small bow and a polite smile a deep contrast to her interactions with Mai. Zoe wondered what possible history they could have since Yuno and Miny just transferred in today and Mari was in a lower class than her.

“Bye Zoe! It was nice talking to you!” Miny was waving frantically as she ran to catch up with Yuno and she tripped and ended up rolling the other half of the way to the girl.

“”I’m OK!” Zoe gave a small chuckle as the two girls finally left and Zoe was alone again. Zoe shook her head as she made her way to the soccer fields.

“This school year is bound to be interesting, and oh yeah we still got that Demon Lord problem.”

On the way to the soccer fields she saw Shinya hiding behind the corner of the gym. He was peeking around the corner staring at someone. As she began to walk closer she could see who it was. Mari was pushing herself up against T.K in a way that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else but seduction.

Zoe has had enough of that girl for today so she just kept walking knowing Shinya would handle the situation in a nice and peaceful manner.

  
  
  


So why was she watching Tommy and T.K fighting each other over the right to be Mari’s boyfriend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's one more chapter but it needs to be fleshed out more so expect it tomorrow. But besides that pealse leave a comment and/or a kudos. Thank you for reading TSDTRW.


	15. She Belong To The Streets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter feels rushed idk maybe thats just me. Um the conversations in this chapter are not supposed to make sense so don't worry if the pacing feels weird. Please enjoy TSDTRW, love you all and thanks for your support.

Shinya and T.K made their ways to the gym so they could begin practice for basketball. Unlike yesterday however T.K was not as welcoming to Shinya. Shinya not having any ill will towards anyone tried to make small talk.

“So what do you think we’re going to do at practice today?” 

T.K didn’t even look his way as he spoke. “I don’t know probably sprints and shooting drills.”

Shinya gave a small ‘oh’ in response but he didn’t want to just give up. “So, how was your day?”

T.K stopped and turned toward Shinya with an agitated expression. “Shinya you seemed like a cool dude, honestly. But right now you two of your friends I don’t particularly like, so right now sorry if I don’t feel like talking to you.”

With that T.K walked off into the locker room leaving Shinya with his thoughts. So because Shinya was friends with Tommy and Koichi he couldn’t try to breach the gaps between groups. It did sadden Shinya a bit but he still went about basketball practice as he did yesterday. It was indeed sprints and shooting drills like T.K said, the coach had paired everyone up and T.K and Shinya ended up being partners. 

T.K kept up his cold shoulder attitude even with Shinya trying to extend an olive branch. When they did sprints and they got a break Shinya grabbed an extra bottle of water for T.K, yet he went to get a different one anyway. Or when they did shooting drills Shinya made an effort to give a ‘good job’ or ‘nice shot’ and T.K would just respond with ‘whatever.’

It went like that the whole practice until they finished. As Shinya walked out of the locker room the shine of a certain purple butterfly caught his attention. Mari was fast walking in his direction mumbling to herself. She didn’t see him but something caught her eye to his left. She made a beeline to whatever caught her attention disappearing behind the gym.

“Maybe I can use this to get her to leave Tommy alone.” Shinya whispered to himself. 

So his investigation began, he creeped around the gym silently being careful not to make any noise. He cheated a little by using his powers to sense two presences rather close to each other. He peeked his head over the corner of the gym to get a look and he tried very hard not to gasp.

Low and behold Mari was pressing her chest flush against T.K, and he definitely wasn’t against her doing it.

“I’ve seen you staring at me T.K, you always have.” Mari sounded very confident in her statement. T.K just looked away with a blush on his face.

“Mari, that was when we were kids, it was a crush, nothing else. After the accident happened, I admit I should’ve done more but that wasn’t how things worked out.”

Mari's face made the smallest of movements but it quickly changed back and she continued her advances on T.K.

“And what about now, Takeru?”

He finally went to look at her and the height difference wasn’t that much so there was barely any room between their faces. Shinya chose this moment to snap a picture of them both in this compromising situation. “Well I would be lying if I say I didn’t think you’re really hot.”

This brought a wide smile to Mari’s face as she backed up from T.K and turned around walking away with an extra pop in her hip. T.K made a small noise then walked the other way to the soccer field. Shinya was glowing in the wake of this as he could get rid of this Mari girl with this evidence, repercussions and consequences aside. So as any  _ concerned  _ friend would do, he sent the picture to Tommy with the text.

“Look who I happened to bump into.”

Shinya had tucked his phone back in his pocket as he made his way over to the soccer fields where everyone was scheduled to meet to go to the Digital World for training. He had arrived just as soccer practice was ending. Truthfully he avoided talking and interacting with Tommy as much as he could the rest of the day until basketball practice. When he got back to class and asked Tommy what happened, he didn’t even seem to think it was a problem, and in his words.

“We’ll have plenty of days to have lunch together, what’s wrong with me missing just this one time?” 

It took a lot for Shinya not to start an argument in the middle of class so he chose to just bottle up his feelings. He was sure Tommy would have noticed his distancing, but Shinya was still hurt over the fact that Tommy ditched him. Even going as far as to not even say anything to him as he left class.

So when Tommy had walked up to him, still sweaty from soccer practice and smiling widely, it was  _ very _ hard for Shinya to keep up his silent treatment act. He sure was a sucker for that smile.

“Hey, Shinya.”

“Tommy.” He was trying  _ really  _ hard.

“You’ve barely even talked to me all day after lunch. You can’t still be mad that I left you at lunch?”

Never mind Shinya’s rage came back ten fold. “Are you serious! You don’t see the problem with what you did? The guy who has waited for me in every single situation since we met and has gotten into fights for me just up and dipped, for a girl he just met!?”

Tommy’s smile dropped and he took a step back, his face began to shift into one of concern. Seemingly coming back to his senses raised a hand to his mouth.

“What have I been doing?” Tommy whispered.

Shinya, still angry, continued to tear his friend a new one. “You left your friend for a girl while he was out getting drinks. Then proceed to tell me I should get over it. Dick move Tommy, dick move.”

By the end Shinya had lost most of his will to be mad at Tommy. To Tommy’s credit he at least had the decency to look ashamed of his actions. Tommy stepped closer and gave Shinya a hug, which snuffed any remaining flames Shinya had.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what came over me I-” At that very moment Tommy phone pinged and Shinya’s eyebrows shot straight up.

Tommy ended the hug to dig out his phone from his bag as Shinya started to shift from foot to foot. Now that Shinya had no reason to be petty, he just felt plain bad that he sent Tommy that picture. Tommy looked at his phone then let out a small laugh, now Shinya was confused.

“Mom’s wondering when you’ll be ‘returning to our humble abode’.” Tommy was showing him the text message.

Shinya gave an awkward laugh and let out a sigh of relief as it wasn’t the photo he saw. Well let any normal person, Tommy began to check if he had any other notifications.

“Takuya was wondering why I ditched you, threatening to set me on fire which is funny because I’m sure I won that fight. Zoe sent a string of emoji’s which meant she was having a silent rage moment. Koichi was asking if I was ok, bless his heart. Kouji just sent ‘Get it together’. Hey you sent me something too.”

Shinya almost fell out on the spot. “Play it off Shinya-boy” Baboongamon was heard in the reaches of his mind.

He gave a forced laugh, “OH, that? I was just wondering where you went, no need to open it.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow in his direction and went to open the few, a bunch, many messages and voicemails he sent to the boy. It was going good till he reached the one he sent a few minutes earlier.

“You just sent me this one, but I was still at practice. What’s this about?”

Shinya just looked away.

Tommy opened the message and his whole body went rigged. Shinya waited with baited breath waiting for any kind of reaction from Tommy.

“Interesting, I think the term is, ‘she’s for the streets’.” Tommy just put his phone back in his bag and threw his arm around Shinya leading him toward the other warriors. Shinya didn’t know if that was a good reaction or not, he didn’t seem mad but he didn’t seem happy either.

Once they got back to the other warriors, eyes went immediately to Tommy’s arm around Shinya. 

“So you guys made up, good we didn’t need in-fighting as we prepare for Lilithmon’s arrival.” Kouji went back to studying notes he took during class.

“I knew you two couldn’t be mad at each other for long!” Zoe clapped her hands together.

“You escaped for now Himi, but I  _ will _ set you on fire one day” Takuya pointed a little finger gun at him.

“So can we go train these Chosen now?” Koichi was looking forward to running the Chosen through the ringer.

As both groups were assembled Tai pulled out a computer. 

“Um, why do you need a computer?” Shinys asked, pointing to the device.

“To get to the Digital World, isn't that how you guys got there?” He stated as if it was an obvious thing to do.

“No, actually we had a train system that took us everywhere made up of Trailmons. It was pretty nifty actually we didn’t really have to walk to get to different places, we just hopped on a trailmon.” Takuya said nonchalantly.

“Wow, don’t let Mimi hear you say that, she hated walking everywhere when we were in the digital world.” Sora gave a small giggle.

Tai then lifted his digivice to the computer and the group was enveloped in bright light.

-

Both groups stood in the arena once again. The chosen in their protective wear and the warriors in their leather. Tommy stepped forward to address the group.

“Seeing as from the observations made from yesterday’s training, it has become clear that you Chosen are a liability if you aren’t whipped into shape. Also seeing as we only have 2 days left until Lilithmon appears the least we can do is run through scenarios and train for the later battles with the other Demon Lords.”

The Chosen all nodded solemnly realising that if they wanted their partner digimon to be fully focused on the battle they needed to pull their own weight. Gennai had at that point come into the arena with a cart full of booklets. 

“These small booklets are your field guides, they contain simple instructions on what to do in certain situations. They have been compiled over the many battles we have had over the years.”

The Chosen eached grabbed one and began to look through the booklets.

“What to do if one of your teammates is forced to cook for an enemy digimon?” Davis read one page out loud.

“You’ve been taken hostage by the enemy when you’ve ran off in a fit of anger.” Sora read off another.

“Digimon appear in public but you’re with someone who doesn't know about digimon.” Kari nodded at one.

“Digimon appeared but you left your digivice in your sports bag. This feels like a personal jab.” Tai gave a small laugh.

“It happens to the best of us.” Takuya laughed with him, their previous interaction being rectified.

“Hey, what about this one? You catch one of your allies flirting with Mari...” T.K’s word fell off by the end of his sentence as his cheeks began to heat up. The group gave a collective audible gasp as T.K started to glare at Tommy.

“How do you know about that, and I wasn’t flirting with her.” Tommy gave a somber laugh as he waved his hand and a screen popped up. On it was the offending image Shinya had sent him. T.K was blushing a deep red as Mari was pressed up to him with the faces dangerously close. T.K had his hands on her arms in a way that could be either mistaken for holding her in place or pushing her away.

“Wow T.P, I didn’t know you got down like that.” Davis elbowed the teen who just stood looking at the enlarged pictured baffled. T.K looked over to Kari who had a hand over her mouth.

“Kari it’s not what it looks lik-” T.K had tried to explain.

“It looks like you’re about to kiss Mari who you know I have mixed feelings about.”

This was news to the warriors and some of the newer Chosen. “I didn’t know you two knew Mari, we just met her today on the way to school.” Shinya had said with a little wave queuing the two that there were other people listening to their conversation.

“We have  _ history  _ with the girl, yes.” Kari left it at that as she went to hide in the field guide booklet.

“How did you even get that picture!?” T.K looked bewildered at Tommy

“You're asking the wrong questions T.K. You should be-. actually you are asking the right questions, but it doesn't matter. Don't you think it's bad that you would make a move on the girl I was seen with?”

“What does it matter, it’s not like you two are dating.” T.K was quick to get on the defensive.

“So you think this is just something that doesn't mean anything. It’s disrespectful T.K, that’s what it is.” Tommy started to inch closer to T.K. T.K to his credit didn’t back down he walked up ready to go blow for blow. Which did happen as T.K threw a punch at Tommy who didn’t even feel the need to dodge he just took the hit no power just seer toxic masculinity.

“T.K, I mean this in the most disrespectful way possible, you hit like a bitch.” Tommy looked at T.K in boredom. T.K threw more punches, one aimed at the face and one aimed at the stomach. Again Tommy let the punch connect not even flinching, even going as far as to yawn in the boy’s face.

“Are you done? My turn.” T.K threw another punch but this time Tommy deflected it punching T.K in the gut causing the boy to kneel over holding his stomach retching onto Tommy’s boots.

“Eww, you got your stomach bile on my boots, here take it back.” Tommy kicked the T.K into Davis and Ken who caught him both looking over at the boy and glaring at him.

“What was that Tommy! Why did you just pummel T.K!” 

To everyone's surprise it wasn’t one of the Chosen who tried to reprimand Tommy but it was Shinya. Tommy turned toward his friend with a blank expression. “What do you mean Shinya, I just gave him a little shove nothing serious, you know I don’t take that kind of dis-”

The noise rang out loud across the stadium. Both groups were silent, you could hear a pin drop or a bit of blood splatter on the ground. Which is what happens as Shinya hit Tommy square in the jaw with a gauntlet covered fist.

Tommy raised a hand to his mouth and indeed did find that his lip was busted and his jaw hurted ever so slightly. “Shinya. What was that for?” Tommy’s voice was barely over a whisper.

“Last time I checked we were supposed to be making allies with the Chosen not trying to kill them.”

“Oh come on his protective suit took all of the damage he won’t even have a bruise.”

“That is not the point Tommy, I don’t know what has gotten into today, but as of right now I don’t think we can be friends.”

If one was paying attention, you could see Zoe throw her hands up in panic and Koichi shed a small tear for the pairing that was Smoki.

“Shinya, you don’t mean that. I know you don’t.” Tommy was reaching toward Shinya trying to get his attention, but Shinya just turned away and walked over to his brother. Tommy let out a sigh and held the bridge of his nose.

“Well I guess training is cut short for today, be sure to memorize the situations in those booklets, believe it or not they are to help you even if you don’t particularly like me right now.”

Tommy walked out of the arena holding on to his jaw. Everyone was just left in shock as the altercation took place.

“Hey sorry about what Tommy did to T.K, as his former friend I want to apologize.” Shinya gave a deep bow to the younger Chosen.

“Hey, you said he has been acting differently, so I don’t want to say  _ no _ hard feelings but, apology accepted.” Davis waved off Shinya as if to say no worries.

-

The Warriors and Chosen landed back on the soccer field and the Chosen left with Matt taking T.K to see Joe, apparently he was the doctor who was the Chosen of Responsibility who’s always doing college stuff.

Shinya turned to the other Warriors with concern on his face. “Was I too harsh with Tommy? Maybe I should go find him. He couldn’t have gone too far.” Shinya was pacing back and forth in front of the older warriors.

“Shinya, as a seasoned ‘war veteran’ I see nothing wrong with how you acted,” Zoe began with a hand on his shoulder.

Shinya looked up at her hopefully. “But…”

Zoe let out a heavy sigh. “As the president of the Smoki,”

“Smoki?”

“Smoki fan club I suggest, YOU GO GET YOUR MAN!” Zoe pointed in a direction she wasn’t entirely sure the boy was in but seemed as good as any.

“I second that notion.” Koichi raised his hand.

“Do what you want.” Kouji said uncaringly but his smile told Shinya otherwise.

J.P pulled out a green cloth from his sleeve. “Green means go kid.”

Shinya finally landed on his brother, the guy he looked up to constantly. “Just give me the call and I’ll roast him.” 

Shinya pumped the air as he made a mad dash in the direction they went yesterday. He was hoping he didn’t mess up things too bad with Tommy, he’ll forgive him right?

Shinya reached the corner as he was calling out to his friend. “Tommy! Tommy! Tom…”

Shinya’s mad dash turned into a sad walk as he was faced with the  _ last  _ thing he could possibly want right now. Standing six feet in front of him Tommy and Mari were engaged in a  _ passionate  _ kiss. Shinya just stood there frozen, not knowing what to do. He wished the ground would just swallow him up at this very moment,and it did making everything go black.

\- 

Perched on the rooftop stood four hooded figures of varying sizes. One on the smaller side had light blue hair flowing from its hood as it dangled it’s leg over the roof of the building. She spoke with a childlike innocence.

“Oh that’s gotta suck. I mean that would never happen to me cause you guys know about the situation at home.”

Another figure a bit taller than the smaller one had a mature woman's voice. “Yes we know, that's all you ever talk about, the targets seem to be disorganized thanks to this Mari girl. She wasn’t a part of the plan but she sure isn’t a detriment.”

Another of the cloaked figures this time a man put his bandaged hand on the shoulder of the blond woman. “Wow, always so battle oriented are you blondie. Maybe if you loosened up, that partner of your’s would put out some more. You're a cute one, maybe you should act like it.” He gave a booming laugh.

The fourth and final hooded figure didn’t speak but they did have a piece of straw hanging from their mouth. The short hooded figure turned toward the figure with the piece of straw. “Hey, Shoku have you been trying to get close to the target yet?”

The figure with the piece of straw gave a grunt and walked away in the direction of the roof access door. The wind picked up causing their cloak to fly up, revealing a Tsukishima High uniform.

**2 Days till Lilithmon Breaches the Portal**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for readin TSDTRW please leave a cooment and/or Kudos. Tomorrow (In story) will be an eventful day for some characters. Until next time on TSDTRW.


	16. 2 Days till Lilithmon Side: Shinya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinya ditches school with Rai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a classic same day different perspective episode. I have been swamped lately due to having most of my camps online now, but I wont let that affect this story. Seeing as most of my writing happens in one sitting and I edit later. Well hope you enjoy leave a Comment and/or a Kudos.

The knocking on the door was becoming annoying at this point. Takuya wouldn’t leave him or it alone. Shinya was definitely not going to school today, there was no way and nothing could make him.

“Shinya you can’t just not go to school! Mom would kill us both if she found out you skipped.” Their mother went into work early today so they happened to be up earlier than normal. That meant Shinya would have more time to think of a plan to avoid _him_.

Shinya managed a weak reply. “Just tell her I was sick or something, I’m not going.” 

Takuya stopped his banging on the door, Shinya must’ve sounded more messed up than he thought. He could hear Takuya shifting around behind the closed door, then a heavy sigh.

“Shinya I don’t know what happened with you two yesterday,” Shinya was glad he didn’t name him. “But that doesn't give you an excuse to ditch school. What would you even do all day?”

That was a valid question, Shinya didn’t really think that far ahead he just knew he wasn’t going to school today. He heard his phone ping and he reached for it, the screen lighting up. The name Rai popped up with a message.

“I don’t really feel like going to school today, wanna keep me company?”

Shinya’s face heated up, he definitely knew what he was gonna do now. Although he could tell his brother he was gonna ditch school to hang out with a guy. So he kept the sulky tone to his voice and even added a little hic to his response.

“Please, Takuya, just today. I just can’t.”

Takuya let out another heavy sigh. “Fine, but we _will_ talk about this later.” Shinya heard his brother walk down the stairs and out of the house. He went to watch him leave when he saw the guy had planned on avoiding till further notice. 

Tommy was talking to his brother as if everything was right in the world and he was just locking lips with Mari. Not wanting to even look at the boy he stared at his phone and texted Rai back.

“Sure, I don’t think I’ll be going to school either. Plus I can finally give you that tour of the city.”

Not missing a beat Rai texted back three smiling emojis and three words that made Shinya’s stomach flutter. 

“It’s a date.”

Was this a date? A ditching date? Oh wow this was Shinya’s first date, what would he wear? He should ask Tom-, no he didn’t need or _want_ his opinion. Shinya went over to his closet to look over his wardrobe. It was still April so he went for a brown hoodie with little monkey ears on it, a pair of jeans and brown sneakers. Just casual wear that was still a bit stylish.

He got another text from Rai that was the address to where he was set up in an apartment when he transferred here. It caught Shinya by surprise as Rai was settled in around the nicer side of town. After he was sure that his brother and the traitor was one he made his way to Rai’s apartment.

Shinya walked around the station looking for the right train to board in the direction of the apartment. As the train ride changed and the secret became nicer and nicer, Shinya was starting to feel that he was a bit under dressed. He got off the train and headed to the apartment building feeling out of place. 

That didn’t last long as once he saw Rai standing outside of the building, just radiating perfection, he felt like he was in another dimension. Although Rai was wearing just a simple black shirt with a golden thunderbolt on it and some jeans, he made it seem like it cost millions of dollars. Rai looked around finally landing on Shinya and his smile grew. He was still sporting the band-aid on his nose.

Rai waved him over. “Hey Shinya!”

Shinya crossed the street and met the smiling boy under the overhang of the entrance. Seeing Rai smile brought one to his face as well, making for a pleasant distraction.

“Well I know why I’m ditching school, cause I’m bored, but why are you Shin-Shin?” Rai asked as he poked the younger boy’s cheek. Shinya chose not to comment on the new nickname Rai had given him and simply swatted the finger away. Rai gave a small pout.

“I’m avoiding someone.” This caught Rai’s interest causing him to lean a bit toward Shinya, in a subtle way asking him to elaborate. Shinya went to deflect the unspoken request by punching him playfully in the arm.

“Come on don’t we have some sights to see or something?” Rai squinted his eyes but let it go, giving a small smile. The two made their way back on the train this time heading toward Yoyogi Park. They stood on the train as even though it was a school day plenty of people still had work or other stuff going on, leaving no empty seats.

Shinya was positioned in front of Rai flushed against his chest as the cart they were in was pretty crowded. The train gave a little jostle as Shinya stumbled and he would’ve fell if it wasn’t for Rai catching him with an arm around his waist. Needless to say Shinya cheeks became a bit flushed.

“Woah there Shin-Shin, you gotta be careful, you could’ve busted your head open.” Rai gave Shinya his sly playful smile as he pulled him closer. Shinya hit Rai’s chest in a retort laughing to himself.

“Wow, you sure are my knight in shining armor.” Rai gave a wide eyed look to Shinya, but quickly changed it to one of dismissiveness. He let out a small scoff.

“Me, a shiny knight? No, I'm just your handsome friendly bo-.” Rai cut off his sentence as his attention was caught by something Shinya couldn’t see. Shinya made to turn his head but Rai stopped him by tugging him closer forcing Shinya to grab on to him to steady himself.

“What wa-”

The train stopped as it announced they were at their stop and they needed to get off. The two boys exited the train and Shinya was tryin to get answers on what Rai saw on the train. Rai himself was looking around trying to get another glimpse at whatever he saw but once he couldn’t find it he simply reached out his hand toward Shinya. Shinya looked down at the hand with a raised eyebrow.

“Do people usually hold hands on a date?” Shinya gave a sigh and grabbed ahold of Rai’s hands, that upon inspection were larger than Shinya’s and soft for a boxer. The two boys made their way to Yoyogi Park, but were stopped when Shinya’s stomach began to rumble. Rai turned to the younger boy with a concerned look on his face.

Shinya gave an embarrassed laugh as he used his free hand to scratch the back of his neck. “I kinda came straight here and skipped breakfast.” Rai gave a smile and pointed to a shop they were passing.

“Let’s go there!”

As the boys got closer to the shop Shinya saw that it was an ice cream parlor, he let out a laugh.

“I’m not sure it’s healthy to be eating ice cream for breakfast Rai.”

Shiyna got a mischievous smile in return. “Oh so you don’t want ice cream then?”

Shinya gave a wide smile. “Oh yeah I want some ice cream!”

The boys entered the shop and Shinya realised he needed to go to the bathroom leaving Rai to order their ice cream. He couldn’t have gone been more than 3 minutes but Rai seemed to be restless when he returned. When he saw Shinya his smile returned ushering them both out of the parlor. Shinya wanted to ask about it but once he was handed the ice cream the thought left him.

The boys continued on their way to Yoyogi Park with ice cream in hand. Shinya went with cookies and cream while Rai got plain vanilla. His explanation was that life was all about the simple things, doing what felt right and not giving it a second thought. He turned to Shinya with a warm and electric smile.

Having finished their ice cream they were left with nothing but themselves and it soon led to conversation.

“So Rai, you said you came from a small village. Do you have family back there or…?” Shinya seemingly remembers that he knew next to nothing about who Rai Kami was. Well now was a better time than any he thought.

“Oh I have a big family, plenty of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces. We always don’t get along but we know we’ll always be family. Even that stupid brother of mine, P-Meikai. How about you?” Rai stumbled over the name of his brother, but Shinya only saw it as him confusing one for the many he could have.

“Oh I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a huge family, but I only have one older brother named Takuya. Honestly he used to be really mean to me and didn’t care for me but almost like magic one day he just changed and now he’s the best big brother anyone could ask for. Even though he can be a total hot head.” Shinya smiled as he thought of his brother and the changes he went through after he went to the Digital World, of course he couldn’t tell Rai that part though.

Rai gave a knowing hum at the information. “I know what you mean. I have this one nephew who is quite the hot head, if it wasn’t for his twin sister I’m sure the family house would’ve burned down by now.”

This made Shinya let go of Rai’s hand and turn toward him with raised eyebrows. “Family house!? Like an estate? I thought you lived in a small village?”

Rai gave a laugh. “Wow, calm down Shin-Shin, yes it’s a small village but that's because it’s the remains of a noble estate from like a really long time ago. The story goes that the ruler of the area had a group of trusted attendants who oversaw different aspects of the nation with each piece of land. 

The family house we live in was the house of the attendant who oversaw finance, but it turns out he was a traitor and most of his property was destroyed with his house barely standing. Most of the villagers under his reign left and the village became a ghost town. 

So some centuries later the village was found by some refugees and they began to rebuild the house and the village slowly began to come back to life. No where near the size it used to be though and now that’s where my family calls home.”

Shinya’s mouth was agape at the story Rai just told. Rai tapped his chin lighty causing him to slowly close his mouth. “Wow that’s, I didn’t think you would be tied to a place with such history. What made you want to leave, other than your boxing sponsorship?” 

Rai scrunch up his face at what Shinya guessed was his answer. “You might think I’m crazy if I told you.”

Baboongamon was waving literal red flags in his head, to what Shinya doesn’t know. Shinya has a quick mental conversation with his partner. 

“Baboongamon what is it?” Shinya was just a bit irritated by his partner's antics.

“Really, Shinya-boy? When someone says ‘You might think I’m crazy if I told you’ it’s probably something outlandish. Definitely a bad sign, the boy already has an aura to him that I don’t trust. I can’t tell what it is, it's not digimon and it’s definitely not human.”

Shinya just stared at his partner like he grew a second rock covered face. “Baboongamon, you, a digimon, are telling me not to trust a human who might say something outlandish. For god’s sake I’m talking to a rock covered baboon who can talk! But,”

Baboongamon showed his fangs in his version of a smile.

“If you think I should be cautious around him I will but I won't stop being his friend because of it. Now excuse me, I have a date to get back to.”

Shinya returned his focus back to the outside world and was greeted with Rai’s anxious face. “Rai, believe it or not, nothing can shock me much nowadays.”

“I had a strong feeling about leaving the village with the next opportunity that was presented to me. My family are really spiritual people so when I told the family about it they were all onboard with the decision and that led me here to Tsukishima High.”

Shinya was trying not to laugh, he didn’t know what he was expecting but that definitely wasn’t it. Baboongamon was worrying for nothing, the growl he received in his mind beg to differ.

“See! I knew you would think I was crazy Shin-Shin!” Rai was pouting in the most charming way possible.

Shinya quickly shook his head. “No no, I was just expecting something, more? Like you came from a different world or something out of those shonen anime.”

Rai gave a laugh and pointed to the entrance to the park. “Look, we’ve finally made it. What do you wanna do first?” 

Shinya brought a hand to his chin thinking of what to do next when his phone began to ring. Rai had a questioning look on his face, Shinya gave him a shrug. Shinya pulled out the phone and once he saw the caller ID he denied the call and pocketed it again.

“The reason you skipped school?” 

Shinya rolled his eyes and pointed to the multiple gardens. He didn’t want to talk about Tommy and he definitely didn’t want him to interrupt his friend date when he wasn’t even here.

“Let’s go look at those beautiful flowers, that seems like a nice calm thing to do plus I’ve always wanted a garden of my own. Did your village sport any beautiful plant life?”

Rai gave a chuckle. “I’m not one for gardens, but I have a brother who doesn’t mind getting dirty.”

The two made their way over to the beautiful pink and white arrangement of colors on top of the tall green stems. Shinya went to get a closer look at each individual plant as Rai just sat back and watched the younger get lost in the plants. Shinya was quickly pulled back though as Rai pointed over his shoulder with an abnormally big smile.

“Hey you like flowers right? Why don’t we try to catch the last of the cherry blossoms!”

Shinya didn’t have time to answer as he was pushed toward the direction of the cherry blossoms. Once they arrived any protest was dropped from his mind. They were the most beautiful thing he's seen. (Save for Rai). Even though there were in the end of cherry blossom season their petals falling and cascading down on the pavement the trees themselves stood beautifully. At times Shinya wondered why he wasn’t the Warrior of Plants or something like that.

Baboongamon commented that all plant life came from the soil which is considered the earth so in turn he could help along with the growth of plants. 

That's when a group of three caught the eye of Shinya, he began to walk toward them with Rai in tow.

“J.P!” Shinya was in a light jog toward the Warrior of Thunder and the two other people with him.

The trio turned their head to the incoming boys. J.P had a grin on his face as he intercepted Shinya with a hug as he did with all of the warriors. Shinya turned to the other two noticing it was Izzy and a boy with medium length blue hair.

“Oh hi Izzy and..?”

The older guy bowed and gave a small smile. “Joe Kudo or,” He leaned in closer. 

“The Chosen of Responsibility.”

Shinya made an O shaped with his mouth and nodded. Shinya turned back to Rai introducing him,

“This is my friend Ra-”

J.P beat him to it.

“Holy thunderclap, it’s Rai Kami. The youngest guy ever to win All-Japan Rookie King! This guy is a boxing legend seeing as he appeared on the scene not too long ago and completely out of nowhere. Where the hell did you find this guy Shinya! Wow, the name is Junpei Shibayama, we should have a match sometime. Like for fun though, like wow I can’t believe we're meeting like this.”

The other three just stared at the two boxers, confused. Shinya looked toward Joe and Izzy trying to see if they knew what was going on but he only got shrugs in return. Rai just scratched the back of his neck with a rehearsed smile he probably used for fans all the time.

“Oh that, wow no one has noticed me yet at school. I try to keep that side of my life separate as I can but, sure Junpei was it? We can spar, I haven’t had a proper match in a while.”

That piece of information left Shinya confused.

“Wait but the first time I saw you, you had your hands wrapped in bandages?”

Rai again made a face but it quickly changed into a smile and he laughed it off. “Oh it was a cooking accident at home.”

Shinya gave a hum and turned to ask the trio why they were also at Yoyogi park.

“Oh me and Izzy have a project we’re working on and this happened to be Joe’s one day off so he came to accompany us and visit the park. But that leaves the question on why you’re here Shinya?”

Shinya looked away at a random cherry blossom falling off the tree.

“Would you believe me if I said we were on a school field trip?”

J.P just shook his head and let it go. Izzy looked up from the notepad he was writing on. “Shinya, knowledge is power and the only way to get knowledge is to get your proper education.”

Shinya let his head drop. Rai had a different opinion however.

“No offense Izzy, but not all knowledge can be learned simply by going to school. All you're getting is book smart and not street smart. If you never learn how to apply all of that ‘knowledge’ in your head is it even worth learning?”

Izzy gave a hum but was interrupted by Rai suddenly yelling at something behind him.

“Jesus lady what do you want!”

The other boys turned around and were met with a blond haired woman with bright pink eyes. She was dressed in a long black cloak, hiding her figure.

“Who is that?” Shinya voiced aloud.

“I don’t know but she has been following us since the train, then at the ice cream parlor, and by the gardens. That’s why we kept moving so fast and changing from place to place.”

The lady opened her mouth and spoke in a friendly tone. “Wow I told Queeny all you had to do was trail them and you get the chance. She can be so impatient sometimes.” The blond lady let out a sigh and reached into her cloak and in the next few seconds everything went to sugar.

First, the lady pulled her cloak off, changing her form into what was clearly a digimon. By the curses Baboongamon was screaming he knew who this lady was.

Second, she was now holding two twin pistols with both aimed at the five boys direction. She shot two bullets both narrowly missing, but flying right by Rai’s ears, causing him to drop to the floor.

Third, the fire caused both sets of protective wear to materialize over the Warriors and Chosen. J.P’s leather set came with a pair of gloves that had lightning bolts on each and his jacket had the picture of three beetles in a triangle formation.

Fourth, the surrounding civilians made a run for it in different directions causing the area to fall into chaos.

Shinya ran to check up on Rai seeing that he was only unconscious and had no visible damage. Shinya turned back to the lady demanding answers.

“Why attack an innocent human, aren't you guys after us?”

The blond digimon gave a still friendly laugh. “Oh honey, each Demon Lord has a different agendas and I don’t work for that slut Lilithmon, and quite honestly she disgusts me to no end.” She began to walk forward firing her guns again. Shinya slammed his hands on the ground erecting a wall to put some distance between them.

“We’ve got to run and get Rai somewhere safe.”

The other three nodded to him and began their retreat as Izzy worked on figuring out who this digimon was. J.P being the strongest was carrying the unconscious Rai. They made their way towards the Yoyogi Event Plaza which gave them area for movement but also had area’s to take cover.

“Oh no.”

The group of four were hiding behind a cluster of trees as Izzy informed them on their new enemy.

“What, spit it out Izzy, we kinda have a situation here.” J.P was keeping watch for the blond digimon.

“Her name is BeelStarmon. She is often referred to as Beelzemon Lady as her appearance is similar to the Demon Lord’s.”

The others gasped, Joe let out a yelp. “Well it’s clear where her loyalties lie.”

Izzy continued reading his database entry. “It says here she’s a, ”

Izzy swallowed the lump in his throat. “Mega.”

“Shit” J.P said from his spot on watch.

“What do we do about Rai? We can”t fight BeelStarmon and look after him.”

Joe went over to check up on him and he turned toward Izzy. He pulled out his phone and put in a number, the phone answered after one ring. “Hey, I’m sorry for this but I need to cash in a favor.”

Pause.

“Yes I’m alright but a friend isn’t.”

Pause.

“Yes, it has to do with my other line of work.”

Pause.

“OK set it up in a secluded room, he’s apparently a bit of a celebrity.”

Pause.

“OK, I’ll be there in a flash.”

He hung up the phone and Izzy nodded and turned his laptop toward Joe. He raised his digivice and grabbed ahold of Rai and they both disappeared in a flash of light.

“What the hell was that Izzy!?” Shinya didn’t understand anything that just happened in the last 30 seconds.

“Joe comes from a family of doctors. The first generation parents remember digimon so Rai will go to his father's hospital and no questions will be asked. As for the flash of light and their sudden disappearance, we use portals to get to the Digital World. I’ve developed a program to use those ‘gates’ to fast travel from one place to another using the Digital World as an intermediate.”

At the end of his explanation another flash went off from his laptop and Joe returned with Gomamon and Tentomon with him.

“So I’ve got good news and I got bad news.”

“Good news.” J.P and Shinya said together without missing a beat.

“So I’ve called for backup and the others are on their way.”

The others nodded and Izzy was the one to bite the bullet. “And the bad news?”

“We have another digital signature headed this way as well.”

Shinya was seriously wondering what his day would’ve been like if he went to school today. He didn’t get the chance as he was soon flipping away from an attack.

“ **Grand Cricket!** ”

The heart shaped croquet mallet was swung in the middle of the four boys sending the Warriors in one direction landing on their feet and with the Chosen another not so much. Izzy was trying not to get his computer smashed and Joe grabbed onto Tentomon and Gomamon.

“Hey lady, that is not what that’s used for!” The marine digimon shouted.

“Gomamon now’s not the time!” His partner and him falling back into their comedic duo schtick.

The lady in question was a black and pink chess piece like digimon. She gave a pompous laugh as she tilted her head back with a hand to her mouth. “Lady is right, the name is QueenChessmon and I’m here to end your little rebellion so I can get back to the hubby.”

BeelStarmon finally caught up in that moment and changed to her muffler get up and her leather. “About time Queeny, where the hell were you?”

“Oh Beel I was off at school.”

“I told you not to mess with the others without telling me first.”

“Whatever Beel I’m a mega too I can do what I want. My bad I got carried away but now let's focus on the four we have right here,”

The two mega level digimon turn their attention fully onto the four students.

“Guys we got to digivolve now!” Shinya cried.

Both Shinya and J.P gather their fractal codes in preparation, while Joe and Izzy raise their digivice as they start to glow with the light of digivolution. As they are swiping across their bands BeelStarmon starts to shoot from her twin pistols. Her bullets are blocked by the combine shields of thunder and rocks created from the spirit evolution.

**EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION**

“ **Baboongamon!** ”

“ **Beetlemon!** ”

**Tentomon Digivolve to Kabuterimon!**

**Gomamon Digivolve to Ikkakumon!**

The two warriors split up and with Beetlemon taking on QueenChessmon to match their speed both trading blows in. Baboongamon was trying to close the distance so BeelStarmon’s pistols will be harder to use. Ikkakumon was giving ranged support to Baboongamon and Kabuterimon was doing the same with Beetlemon.

QueenChessmon was trying to stab Beetlemon with it’s Queen Stick, “ **Heart Breaker!** ”. Beetlemon deflected the move by wrapping the stick with its leg and kicking it down using the momentum to get her off her balance, “ **Gigaton Press!** ”. Now missing a beat as she fell she twisted her body bringing the Queen Stick up and hitting Beetlemon in the side launching him a distance.

Kabuterimon tried to fill the void by sending a ball of electricity at QueenChessmon, “ **Electro Shocker!** ”. Instead of being affected like Kabuterimon had planned she just started to giggle.

“Stop it that _tickles_.”

QueenChessmon was too busy laughing to notice Beetlemon charging at her at full speed “ **Proton Slam!** ”. The electrified horn slammed into her stomach causing her to make a yelping noise as she was now on the receiving end of being thrown a great distance. She rolled twice before bringing her Queen Stick to the ground stopping herself and leaving a mark on the ground.

Beetlemon wasn’t planning on letting up as he called Kabuterimon.

“Blast me with as many Electro Shockers as you can!”

Kabuterimon was hesitant, even voicing his opinion. “But wouldn’t that hurt you?”

“We don’t have time for you to shrivel up plus, Warrior of Thunder, remember!?”

Kabuterimon looked back at Izzy who nodded back at him, which was the go ahead he needed. Kabuterimon gathered all the energy he had to give and he could feel Izzy’s crest supporting him from afar filling in any of the energy he didn’t have. He hoped Beetlemon knew what he was doing.

“ **Quintuple Electro Shocker!** ”

The Electro Shocker gathered into one huge ball of lighting headed in the direction in between QueenChessmon and Beetlemon. Beetlemon began to run and hit a roundoff, landing and bounded toward the ball of lighting as he reached astounding heights. He gathered the amount of electricity and compressed it around his fists.

He brought his hands together. The resulting sound was that of a huge thunderclap. As he began to descend at high speeds, he brought his hands over his head ready to strike QueenChessmon. “ **THOR’S HAMMER!”**

Queenchessmon mouthed something before she got hit with what Beetlemon was sure was what it would feel like to be struck by lighting 100x over. Beetlemon jumped back creating some distance just to make sure if the hit still wasn’t enough to weaken her, he had some leeway in means of defense.

Oh but the attack did some damage alright. The battle field was filled with the shirek of what one would think a banshee would sound like. The dust cleared that was surrounding QueenChessmon and not a single scratch or dent was in her armor. So why was she shrieking?

“ _MY HAIR!!!!!!_ ”

Indeed QueenChessmon’s light bluehair was indeed fried and a few inches were gone from her previously long flowing hair. She started crying as tears began to flow down her dark cheeks. It was kinda awkward as Beetlemon and Kabuterimon weren't sure whether to attack or apologize. They didn’t get the chance as her cries began to turn into wails of rage and her form began to change.

The pink in her form became dark red as she began to scream bloody murder on anyone near her vicinity. Her hair began to turn white and began to float into tendrils. BeelStarmon turned from her fight with Baboongamon and Ikkakumon and addressed the electric bug theme duo.

“Oh no! What did you idiots do!?”

Beetlemon spared her a glance retorting back. “What do you mean what did we do!? We defended ourselves from you two!”

“No you idiot you activate her ‘Tantrum Mode’, even I can’t do anything to stop her now. She just has to tire herself out. That’s it I’m out of here, hopefully if you’re not dead I can take you out myself next time.”

She charged up her pistols firing Beelze Bullets at Baboongamon and Ikkakumon, “ **Fly Bullets!** ”. The shots hit Baboongamon so hard he flew into an already shot Ikkakumon which sent him arching in the air causing him to devolve mid-flight. Naturally as any non flying human, which is everyone, Shinya starts to fail his arms around frantically. And if you were to ask him if a high pitched voice escaped his throat he would deny any existence of it. But as he plummeted down to the ever closing in of the ground he had one thought running through his brain.

“Man, It sucks to die without getting a kiss from Tommy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? Next Chapter we'll see how Tommy's day went. See you next time on TSDTRW! Also not sponsored but the reboot is airing again so definitely go check it out. Those who have a gripe about the first 3 episodes I say think of it as a game tutorial and it shows them what they can have in the future. Episode 4 was good in my opinion I'm liking the way the new continuity is going so far.


	17. 2 Days till Lilithmon Side: Tommy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How was school for Tommy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I know I'm late but happy 1,000 hits to me. Didn't think my story would be viewed at all to be quite honest.  
> Here's another chapter in TSDTRW! I hope you enjoy please leave a kudos and/or comment. I thrive and enjoy hearing your theories and thoughts in each chapter.

Tommy woke up in a great mood. He had a little pep in his step and had the biggest smile on his face. He brushed his teeth more enthusticaly than normal, and he was sure his family could tell too. In all honesty this was the most emotion he has shown to any one outside of Shinya. Speaking of he needs to go make sure the Kanbara duo is awake and ready for school.

Tommy got dressed in his school uniform and bounded down the stairs giving his parents a kiss goodbye much to their surprise and even more shockingly gave his older brother Yutaka a bear hug that would make J.P proud.

His brother seemed to think that something was wrong with him as Yutaka brought the back of his hand to Tommy’s forehead.

“Um kid, you alright?”

Tommy stepped back from the hug and gave a wide smile and a thumbs up.

“Never been better!”

Tommy finally made it to the door and put on his shoes making his way to the Kanbara residence. As with his morning routine Tommy was walking as if he was on cloud 9. Those passing by gave him a wave and pleasantly gave one back. Kinda like those romantic comedies Shinya wants to watch with him.

And in that fashion he bumps into yet another person on the way to his destination. As he bumped into the body this time it was head first. As he sat on the ground he was rubbing his now sore head.

“God, I really need to stop meeting people like this.”

He opened his eyes to find a boy who could only be described as a Grass-type Gym Leader wearing the Tsukishima High uniform. He was toned from what he guessed was gardening, Tommy didn’t know how that made sense but it did. 

His hair was black with the tips being green and something told Tommy that it was natural. He had it tied back in a medium ponytail with a piece hanging out with a lotus flower pin struck through it. Also providing the Gym Leader look was the piece of straw hanging from his mouth.

“No problem stranger, but you should really watch where you're going.” Tommy was taken aback by the smoothness of the boy's voice, he couldn’t be more than a freshman like him.

Tommy blushed feeling embarrassed about not paying attention. “I’m sorry, I was too busy thinking about how good of a mood I’m in today.”

The Gym Leader just gave a laugh. “I’ve been there before my siblings always tell me I’m a ditz when it doesn’t come to plants.”

“Oh are you into gardening or something?”

He gave a smile. “Yeah something like that.”

Tommy’s watch beeped with one of the alarms he sets to keep up with his schedule. He put on an apologetic smile and bowed. “I’m sorry again, hopefully I see you around school some time…”

It dawned on Tommy that he didn’t know the Gym Leader’s name.

“Shoku.”

Tommy gave a wider smile and waved Shoku goodbye. “The name’s Tommy, well see you around Shoku!”

Tommy finally reached the Kanbara residence to see Takuya stepping out fully dressed and ready to go to school. Tommy gave him a wave but Takuya only returned it with a tight lipped face.

“Hey Takuya, where’s Shinya?”

Tommy made a move to go inside the house but Takuya grabbed his arm not facing him. Tommy made a noise to signal Takuya to let him go.

“Shinya is feeling a little under the weather today Tommy it’s best you don’t go inside.” Takuya’s words seemed a little forceful to Tommy, but he didn’t like the implications that would have. Why would Shinya not want to see him?

“Stop fooling around Takuya, I’m going in to see my best friend.” Tommy felt his skin begin to return to that of a normal human, which meant Takuya was adding a bit of heat to his touch. Tommy looked at where Takuya had his hand and then back up to the boy who was glaring at him.

“Takuya you don’t want to do this.” Tommy gave an icy glare in contrast to Takuya's fiery one. Usually they would both let this argument drag out but not today. Tommy relented and so did Takuya, the latter with a heavy sigh.

“I don’t know what happened between you two yesterday but ever since he went after you after he blew up at you at training he locked himself in his room. Any mention of your name and he seems to sink deeper into this funk. So for now _stay away_.”

Tommy felt a sudden pang in his chest that he hasn’t felt in a _long_ time. Was this guilt? Shame? He couldn’t pinpoint it, but he sure didn’t feel good. He simply gave a small nod and followed Takuya to the train station and went along quietly to school. He could only hope people wouldn’t see him sad about missing a Shinya size part of him.

-

People were definitely noticing the missing Shinya sized part of him. The moment he walked in, girls walked up to him asking him if he knew where he was and he just put on a small smile and gave the excuse Takuaya gave him.

“Oh I’m sorry, he’s feeling under the weather so he didn’t come to school today.” He found himself saying that a lot today.

Strange enough it was the Chosen in the class showing the most interest in Shinya’s wareabouts. They sat in their square as always and Davis called Tommy over to ‘talk’.

Davis lowered his voice as if he was discussing top secret information. “So what's really going on with Shinya? Can you guys even get sick? What happened?”

Tommy’s sadden look returned full force and his shoulders slumped. “I honestly think he’s avoiding me for some reason. He’s brother wouldn’t even let me in the house.”

T.K, sporting a sore attitude, gave a humorless chuckle. “I don’t blame him.”

Tommy's eyebrow twitched. “Hey, you want Mari? Go ahead and have her, she definitely knows I don’t want her after yesterday.”

This got the attention of the group of Chosen even Kari who was actively blocking out the conversation when it began to go in the direction of Mari.

“Oh!? What happened?” Davis was back to asking questions.

Tommy gave a simple shrug. “Nothing huge, I just told her no after she kissed me.”

Apparently that was huge news to the Chosen, because the four immediately began to all start talking at once and quite frantically.

“She kissed you!?”

“No way!”

“Was it any good?”

“Sounds just like her.”

And as the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Mari had sauntered her way towards the group in what was supposed to be considered ‘sexy’ but just seemed desperate. Her eyes ran from T.K to Kari and ended on Tommy, going from smug , to disgusted, and ending on dreamily respectively. 

She gave a small wave in Tommy’s direction, and with him not wanting to be rude and already stating his standing on the matter gave a small smile in return. This might not have been the best idea as Mari took this as a ‘go ahead’ and began to openly flirt with Tommy.

“So, about last night, you think we could maybe do it again?” Mari was looking between her lashes and leaning in giving a better view of her breats. Tommy just politely took a step back putting distance between them.

“Mari I already told you how I felt yesterday.”

Mari’s smile wavered and she made a choked noise. “Tommy, you were just joking last night, you had to be. You didn’t really mean those things you said.”

“I meant everything I said, sorry but I really don’t feel the same way you do,” 

The whole class was now paying attention to their little interaction. Tommy wasn’t one for the dramatics but he needed to put a stop to some things. Especially since Kumamon and Korikakumon have been oddly quiet since the day before.

Tommy can see the tears start to build in the girl’s eyes. It was a shame too, he was having such a good morning too. Shinya was really gonna wring my neck out later for this one but oh well.

“Maybe T.K can fulfill whatever feelings you have? You two seemed to be shacked up yesterday anyway, and quite honestly I should’ve put a stop to your advances early on but _Shinya_ is always telling me to be nicer. Mari I’m sure your a nice girl,”

Kari let out a scoff.

“But right now I only have eyes for one person and it isn’t you.”

Mari’s tears turned into rage at being told off in front of the whole class. So she started to yell at Tommy, who didn’t flinch but faced the angry girl head on.

“What’s wrong with you! Look at me, I'm the best looking girl in this class, no this school! My body is the perfect hourglass, coke bottle figure! Who the hell, could you want over me!? I know maybe you're just not a man, you're just a little boy who can’t see a woman when she’s standing in front of you!”

She turned and addressed the rest of the class in a big spectacle. “That’s right everyone Tommy Himi is just a little boy who can’t appreciate beauty at its utmost peak. I bet whoever you got your I on must be the ugliest, most disgust, human on this planet!”

That last part she turned back to Tommy and was practically foaming at the mouth with her rage. Tommy felt his hand clench and unclench for Romeo almost forgetting he can’t just shoot everything to make it go away. She paused for a second and then she seems to have reached an epiphany.

“Wait, I know, it's that damn Shinya Kanbara isn’t it?”

The class gave a collective gasp, many of the girls whispering and some of the guys passing money around and others relieved. The Chosen were watching Mari go off on Tommy with interest, undoubtedly wishing to see how the boy would react. However Tommy stayed quiet about the accusation, but they all knew it was a yes.

“What is it about him? Anything he can do I can do 10x better! He won’t treat you like I would, he’s not good looking, what can he do for you!? He’s worthless, spineless, and all ugly things don’t deserve to _live_!”

Smack.

The class was quite as Mari held onto her cheek. Tommy had his hand prepared to give the girl the coldest backhand of her life, and possibly get him suspended for a bit. Luckily Zoe beat him to it, he didn’t know where she seemingly appeared from but he was glad.

Ken asked his question for him. “Zoe!? Isn’t your class on a different floor?”

Zoe, who stll had her hand down, calmly raised back up standing over Mari who she’s finally meeting face to face and can get a good look at her. Opposed to her short confrontation with Miny and Yuno.

She wasn’t impressed.

“Wow, Tommy the way Shinya was describing her as gorgeous, hot, and second only to _me_ , I was expecting something _more_. We really need to train that eye of his, this girl doesn't even come close to true beauty.”

Zoe’s voice was filled with distaste and disgust, Kazemon and Zephyrmon were on the same page. How one can be so filled with arrogance and delusion is beyond her. Sounds like something Lilithmon woul-.

Zoe mentally shook her head, both beings are just filled with lust is all they would bond to be alike in some ways. She sent the idea to Kazemon and Zephrymon but they both came up blank in regards to her possible theory. The spirits could find nothing wrong with her aura was spiritually human.

Mari finally recovering from her shock was about to turn on Zoe when the teacher _finally_ showed up to start class. He saw the state the class was in and let out a sigh.

“Mrs. Orimoto, I have only heard good things about you from my fellow colleagues, so I will not question why Mrs. Yuko has a bright mark on her cheek. Please hurry on to class.”

Zoe, who had on the rehearsed political smile most of the warriors developed when they needed to make political ventures between factions, bowed and walked out of class and gave Tommy a look that meant they would talk.

Everyone returned to their seats and class began, Tommy could hear Mari muttering to herself but he didn’t want to try to understand them. It was hard to focus when it came to instruction and he soon drifted to looking out the window and not the textbook.

The position of the class gave a clear view to the greenhouse that housed the gardening club. Coming out of the greenhouse was Shoku who was carrying a mixture of exotic plants into the greenhouse. As he was between plants he stood up producing a towel from somewhere and seemingly noticing the eyes on him locked eyes with Tommy. Shoku gave a warm smile and a wave, which Tommy returned with his one lopsided grin.

The interaction was cut short when a voice pulled him from the window.

“Mr. Himi please pick up where Mr. Motomiya ended.”

The class was filled with snicker while Tommy let out a sigh. He stood up and seamlessly continued the paragraph. He could tell many of the class that he would’ve choked, but you don’t be a warrior without some senses.

-

The bell for lunch rang and as soon as he exited the classroom he was sweeped up by the harsh winds of Zoe Orimoto. They made their way to a secluded area outside of the school which wasn’t far from the greenhouse.

After they finally slowed down and came to a stop Tommy got a look at Zoe.

“Wow Zoe you weren't this agitated when you left what happened?”

Zoe rolled her eyes letting out a groan. “Yuno wasn’t in class today so I had to deal with Miny all by myself.”

“Do you know why Yuno wasn’t in class?”

Zoe shook her head and let out a sigh. “No, Miny just said Yuno had some business to take care of and she wouldn’t be at school today. I hope it's just for today because that girl will drive me insane if I don’t get her to shut up. But,”

Now it was Tommy’s turn to groan out in frustration.

“What was that back there Tommy? And where’s Shinya I know he's not sick because if he was you would be stuck taking care of him.”

Tommy blushed at the thought of him taking care of his friend. Changing his head towel, making him soup, watching movies toge-. _Nope,_ now’s not the time to be day dreaming.

“Well to the first one Mari kissed me and I pushed her away yelling at her, pretty sure I almost shot her with Romeo.”

Zoe hummed.

“To the Shinya thing, I honestly don’t know I’m sure he’s avoiding me though. When I went by the house Takuya wouldn’t let me in saying something happen between us but I didn’t see Shinya after he blew up at me.” 

Zoe made a noise. “Oh I see what’s going on here. When did Mari kiss you?”

Tommy dug his brain for the events last night. “Probably a few minutes after I left the training session, why?”

Zoe let out a sigh as she shook her head. “Sinya thought he was too harsh on you so he was going to apologize so he went looking for you.”

Realization appeared on Tommy’s face. “He probably saw Mari kissing me and thought it was something it wasn’t.”

Zoe nodded and placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “I’m sure you know what you need to do the next time you see him.”

“Yeah I do.”

With that Zoe walked off saying she needed some food if she was going to deal with Miny the rest of the day. Tommy also made his way back but not before bumping into a familiar green haired boy.

“Wow, Tommy please don’t make this a habit of how you greet me.” The smooth voice from earlier today had a tone of amusement added to it.

“I’ll certainly try Shoku, but I didn’t know we had a gardening club here.”

Shoku gave a light laugh. “Well not anymore, one of my members just quit so I’m just short of the number to keep the club going.”

Tommy felt bad for the guy, but then an idea popped up in his head.

“I know a guy who loves gardening, let me call him real quick. I’m sure he’ll join your club if I ask.”

Tommy pulled out his phone and went to dial Shinya’s number a bit hesitant. Shoku could tell as he gave him a look of concern.

“Is everything alright Tommy?”

“Nothing just thinking is all.

Shinya wouldn’t ignore his call would he? That's not like him, he couldn’t be that hurt could he? Tommy swallowed the lump in his throat and gathered his courage. He wasn’t scared facing countless digimon, calling his best friend wouldn’t be hard would it?

He dialed the number.

Ring, ring, ring

Ring, ring, ring

Ring, ring, ring

The phone clicked signaling the call was declined but it still left the option for a voicemail. Tommy wanted to say that the fact Shinya purposely denied his call didn’t hurt but he wasn’t a liar.

“Hey, Shinya I know you probably don’t want to hear from me right now but, turns out there’s a gardening club that needs a member and I know how much you like gardening so…” 

The phone beeped again as his time ran out and Tommy let out another sigh. Shoku brought his hand to Tommy’s shoulder in reassurance.

“Hey, it’s gonna be fine Tommy I’m sure you too will be fine or my name is Shoku Kami.”

This made Tommy raise his eyebrow. “Kami? Like a god?”

Shoku gave a laugh. “I know it’s a running joke in the family. Since we came from nothing and we happen to believe in speaking stuff into existence we adopted the last name Kami which means god. It’s kinda our way of saying we will be revered and worshiped leaving us to want for nothing.”

Tommy thought that sounded like flimsy logic but then again he’s also been to a world filled with digital monsters so why not. Tommy waved goodbye to the ‘Grass Gym Leader God’, returning to the class before the lunch bell rang.

On his way he saw the short, blue haired girl that was probably Miny on the phone with someone. He made to call out to her but the topic of conversation made him stop.

“Yes, Yuno I didn’t forget about my duties.”

Pause.

“Jeez let me have fun, school is fun.”

Pause.

“Fine just stop living up to that demon persona, bye Yuno.”

Duties? Demon persona? What was going on with those two Yuno and Miny? Tommy made a mental note to tell Zoe to keep an eye out for the two when he got the chance.

-

Toomy learned early on in his career as a Warrior that life moves fast, very fast. So when he was meeting the rest of the Warriors at the front of the school and Miny was running off that laugh was about to get hectic.

“Hey where did Miny run off to?” Tommy questioned as he made his way to the other Warriors.

Zoe gave a shrug. “She said something about Yuno needing her ‘assistance’ with something and ran off.”

Tommy was about to voice his suspicions as their bands simultaneously went off. The Warriors looked around to see if anyone caught the suspicious actions before heading by a tree in the shade.

It was a distress signal from one of the Chosen.

“We need help. Yoyogi Park. Two megas. Earth, Thunder, Knowledge, Responsibility.”

This brought all the Warriors to high alert, especially Tommy and Takuya. Tommy whirled on Takuya.

“I thought you said he was staying home wallowing or something, how did he end up in Yoyogi Park!?”

Tauya didn't like the acquisition and fired back at Tommy. “I don’t know but if you didn’t do whatever you did yesterday then he would be caught up in this right now!”

Zoe decided to step in before the boys could get to blows.

“Boys! It’s better we head over there so we can help, seeing as there's two mega digimon against two champions, a human spirit, and a beast spirit.”

Both boys turned away from each other giving a huff, Koichi and Kouji dragging each to find the Chosen so that they could head over to the park.

-

The two groups now we're together suited up and ready to join the fight. They all gathered in the computer lab. Those not in highschool had ways of getting to the park as well. Some were anxious seeing as they weren’t at full power yet and most could only reach champion level. Others were hoping that their numbers would be enough.

“Guys let's go, Izzy has his laptop open to jump through. It’s now or never.” Tai gave a reassuring smile and he raised his digivice lighting up the computer lab.

The large group thankfully didn’t land in a dog pile and were all standing up right and ready for action. Only they weren’t ready for what they were greeted with. Gomamon was being held by Joe and the digimon looked worse for wear. Kabuterimon and a heaving Beetlemon were positioned for attack against a red armored covered and white hair digimon.

The digimon was clearly a QueenChessmon but Tommy was sure their colors were pink and black. That’s when Tommy went back over on a head count and saw one missing.

“Where’s Shinya!?” Tommy had yelled gaining everyone’s attention.

A high pitched scream filled the area as he looked up to find Shinya falling from the sky flailing his arms frantically. He found out later that it was thanks to his enhanced hearing as he was the only one who heard the sound. Tommy ran over in the direction of his falling best friend.

He reached his hands out creating a giant slide of ice creating snow as a cushion. Shinya fell on the slide and into the snow jumping out and frantically looking around his surroundings.

“Ow that smarts, who knew mega level digimon would be this strong.” He began to stand up and noticed that he was in a pile of snow and snow meant… .

Tommy came running up and tackling Shinya back into the snow. Shinya knew Tommy never initiates contact first so he returned the hug in an instant.

“Hey Tommy, get off me I’m fine see no scratches on me.” How was it that Shinya ended up consoling the guy he was avoiding the whole day?

“What the hell! What would you have done if I wasn’t here to catch you!”

Shinya gave a small smile and patted the taller boy's head. “Well then just always be there to catch me doofus.”

 _Nope_ , this is wrong, he's mad at Tommy. He was going to continue to igno-.

“I’m sorry Shinya.”

Him. Damnit.

“If Zoe is right, and she normally is, you probably Mari kissed me yesterday.”

Tommy felt Shinya stiffen, so he knew he was going in the right direction.

“She had jumped on me out of nowhere and I _immediately_ pushed her off and yelled at her telling her there was someone else and I was just being nice to her but she was taking things too far.”

Shinya gave a huff.

“You ditched me for her, that wasn’t being nice Tommy.”

Tommy was trying to explain but seeing Kabuterimon shoot overhead and devolving into Tentomon brought them both back from their little world.

“We should…”

“Yeah, maybe?”

They both got up and dusted the snow off fractal codes in hand.

**EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The day will end with the massive fight with Queen  
> chessmon Tantrum mode. Unit next time on TSDTRW!


	18. Kami Family reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> QueenChessmon Tanrtum Mode, well has a tantrum. Then we visit Rai in the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my battle scenes can be more descriptive or something, tell me in the comments if they are like lackluster or whatever. Um lot of plot seeds going on, we are nearing Lilithmon's arrival and I'm actually very excited for the turn the story is going in. Again thank you for reading leave a Kudos and/or comment.

“ **Baboongamon!** ”

“ **Tommy!** ”

That wasn’t right, he definitely was going for Kumamon. Maybe it had something to do with the odd silence is spirits were giving him. Baboongamon turned to the still human Tommy and gave a grunt.

“Join the others, I’ll protect the Chosen while I figure this out.”

Baboongamon slammed his fist into the ground and propelled himself into the fight. 

Turns out they were zoned out enough for everyone else to digivolve and/or spirit evolve. QueenChessmon was already tough being a mega but this ‘Tantrum Mode’ was making things worse. Beetlemon said an attack that had the same impact as a hundred lightning bolts did nothing but give the digimon a haircut. 

Tommy ran and slid in front of the gathered Chosen just in time to build a blockade as debris headed their way.

“Has anyone heard of this ‘Tantrum Mode’ before?” Tommy yelled into the battlefield. He received a variety of answers that all turned out to be different ways to say no. He kicked the blockade he just made in frustration. First his spirits were giving him the silent treatment and now they were going into a fight blind.

“Um, we haven’t even heard of or seen a QueenChessmon before, so this is all new to us.” Tai supplied the frustrated Warrior of Ice.

“QueenChessmon comes from the Chessmon species, they are all self explanatory. Each digimon is modeled after a chess piece. Pawn, Knight, Rook, Bishop each having white and black counterparts. However once you get to the King and Queen, KingChessmon can only come from the white line and QueenChessmon can only come from the black.” Tommy explained to the Chosen as Izzy began to update his database.

“Wait so their hierarchy is the same as the game of chess right?” Ken had his hand on his chin deep in thought.

“Yes, very much so the powerhouse is the Queen not the King.”

Ken clapped his hands together. “I got it!”

Everyone’s attention was brought to Ken.

“Chess pieces are now running a kingdom meaning they need leaders, the  _ married _ KingChessmon and QueenChessmon. What if we use their relationship to our advantage?”

Izzy spoke up from his computer. “She did mention wanting to hurry things up here so she could get back to the ‘hubby’.”

Tommy felt his mouth hang open just a tad bit. “ _ Hubby _ ?”

Izzy nodded with Joe backing him up. Yolei brought up a good question tho. “Where are gonna find a KingChessmon, let alone  _ her  _ KingChessmon.”

“Yolei is right we don’t have a KingChessmon but we could try and reason with her, try to calm her down. BeelStarmon said the only way for her to stop is for her to tire herself out.” Joe was tending to both Gomamon and Tentomon.

“Why don’t we try both? It wouldn’t hurt to try anyway.” Davis was ready for the plan of action already sprouting orders missing the warning from Ken.

“Davis wait-!”

“XVeemon, get the others to distract QueenChessmon!”

-

XVeemon nodded flying opposite of Stingmon both firing attacks at the digimon, “ **V-Laser** ”, “ **Moon Shooter** ”. Those not aware of the plan all began to attack as well thinking they were going for a group attack.

“ **Mega Flame!** ”, “ **Howling Blaster!** ”, “ **Meteor Wing!** ”, “ **Needle Spray!** ”, “ **Heaven’s Knuckle!** ”, “ **Cat Laser!** ”, “ **Blast Laser!** ”, “ **Knockout Beat!** ”.

The blasts from the 10 champions were easily deflected by the wild wiping of QueenChessmon’s hair tendrils.

-

“Wait, pause. Wasn’t her whole deal that her hair was messed up? It seems to be flowing lusciously to me.” Mimi questioned out loud.

“It must be an effect of the tantrum mode. It might revert back to normal after she calms down.” Sora theorized an answer to Mimi’s question.

-

The attack on QueenChessmon brought her attention from simply throwing her tantrum to focusing on the multitude of digimon surrounding her. She let out another cry releasing a powerful and imposing aura, “ **Princess’s Whim!** ”. All of the champions including Baboongamon and excluding Gatomon fell to the ground kneeling.

-

“What is she doing to them!?” Kari yelled out in concern.

“It’s an indimitation attack, those who don’t have mental blocks would easily fall for the attack.” Tommy answered from his meditative pose he assumed trying to conversate with his spirits.

“Is that why the Warriors weren’t affected? But Gatomon is still standing?” Yolei analyzed the battlefield seeing the small cat not being affected.

“She was a soldier for Myotismon and there was the whole Wizardmon fiasco, I’m sure she had some walls she put up before she met Kari.” Izzy was still typing away at his computer. Tommy could feel eyes on him as to why the Warriors were still standing.

-

Their attention was brought back to the battlefield as QueenChessmon went on the offensive lashing out at whoever she could hit. Her hair along with the swords on her armor began to float and zipp across the battlefield stabbing whoever she could, “ **Heart Breaker!** ”.

The attack left only Stingmon, Ankylomon, Garurumon, and Gatomon standing along with the Warriors. Ankylomon and Stingmon were saved by their hard shells and able to deflect the swords, Garururmon and Gatomon both used their speed to dodge quickly the stabbing swords.

-

“Having multiple beings in your mind helps with defenses but we aren’t entirely immune to mental attack. Unless it’s a device that is on our person it usually doesn't work or last long on us.” Speaking of multiple beings Tommy could feel Kumamon and Korikakumon beginning to stir in his mind.

“Guys!?” Tommy called out mentally to his spirits. He got yawns in return.

“Wow, how long have we’ve been out? It’s felt like years.” Kumamon was rubbing his eyes.

“It’s been two days Kumamon. I expect that from Korikakumon because he could’ve been on a special prayer cycle or something. What happened?”

Korikakumon gave a deep grunt. “We felt a sudden wave of drowsiness, then darkness.”

Kumamon patted the bigger digimon’s leg. “It’s ok big guy. I can’t really pinpoint exactly when we blacked out but something powerful must’ve been used to affect us. Watch your back Tommy.”

Tommy gave a nod. “Well speaking of we’re kinda in the middle of a battle with a powered up QueenChessmon. Have you heard of a ‘Tantrum Mode’ before?”

Kumamon gave a small yelp. “Oh that’s not good Tommy. There've been only 3 QueenChessmon to develop ‘Tantrum Mode’ and it’s definitely nothing to sneeze at. One wiped out half her kingdom because her KingChessmon wasn’t paying enough attention to her as he was trying to run their kingdom. That was quite the mission.”

Tommy gave an audible gulp. “So how do we stop her, I don’t think we have half a kingdom to spare.”

“You don’t stop her, you survive her.” Kumamon waved his hands ominously, Tommy’s face fell, he never did like the outcome of battles. However they were in a war and casualties was just the name of the game.

“Stop scaring young Tomoki, Kumamon.” Korikakumon hit Kumamon with a flat axe. Kumamon’s smile grew comically wide.

“Fine fine, let me have my fun you big yeti. You just need to knock her in the back of her neck in between what you humans call ‘C3’ and ‘C4’? Ask your doctor friend, he'll know what I’m talking about.”

Tommy exited the mindscape and was back on the battlefield. “I got it!” He jumped up running to Joe.

“What is C3 and C4? It’s really important!” Joe gained a look on his face.

“Wow, how come I didn’t think of that! It’s the simplest way to incapacitate an enemy!” Joe pointed to the back of his neck in the specified area. Tommy gave him a nod and gathered his fractal code in his hand.

“Tommy you have more rings than before!” Cody pointed at his hand which was covered in five rings of fractal code.

“You guys might want to back up, I’m going beast.” The Chosen stepped back giving Tommy wary looks.

Tommy felt the area drop to frozen temperatures as he began to tap into the purer, rawer, solid ice. He could fill the blizzard his transformation was summoning, and he could do nothing but scream. A beastly howl if you would. It didn’t hurt, no, just the raw power was a lot and he needed some type of release or he would explode.

Once the spirit evolution was complete and he was towering over everyone on the battlefield his eyes landed on QueenChessmon. His voice was gruff and booming.

“Tatic: Asuramon.”

The other Warriors knew what he was asking of them, he could only pray that the Chosen did as he asked.

-

“Who’s Asuramon.” T.K asked from where the Chosen were watching the newly formed Korikakumon. Cody was looking at his DNA partner with an analyzing look. He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. He chose a different approach.

“Did you not read the ‘Battle Guides’?” Cody asked T.K in a disbelieving tone. T.K just gave him a shrug.

“Wow, would expect something like that from Davis,” Cody ignored the indignant shout. “But even he read the booklet Tommy handed us at the training session.”

T.K eyebrows turned in a downward fashion. “You mean the training where I was carried out because I was in a near unconscious state.”

Cody let out a sigh. “That’s not really an excuse T.K, those booklets were actually  _ very _ insightful, hence the tactic he just called out. Asuramon was a digimon he faced with multiple limbs he froze each so he could target its weak spot.”

“Why couldn’t he just say that then!?” T.K was  _ not  _ gonna be on the losing side of this.

“Well then the enemy would know what our plan was. Please T.K, I know the two of you have had a rocky relationship but don’t let that fact possibly cost humans and digimon their lives.” Cody placed a steady gaze onto T.K to show him he meant every word.

T.K clicked his tongue and just turned around focusing back on the battle.

-

As half of their forces were brought down to rookie, the remaining 11 were working on subduing the five tendrils of hair leaving Korikakumon to deal the finishing blow. 

“Stingmon! I’ll get a hold of the tendril and you take the shot!” Beetlemon rushed the tendril taking a hit then twisting his body and grabbing it feeling the lightning flow through him into the hair, “ **Plasma Shock!** ”. The tendril went limp as Stingmon flew with the stingers on his hands raised and glowing purple, “ **Assassin’s Dance** !”, the hair cut and falling to the ground.

Garurumon and Lobomon paired up to take down another. The hair lashed out at Lobomon causing him to jump out of the way. “I wonder if I should cut my hair? Because after this I don’t want to deal with hair anytime soon!” 

The recoil of the strike made it easy for the hair to whip back and catch Lobomon in the air. “Ahh!”

He was caught by Garurumon, “Got you Lobomon!”

Lobomon was now riding the other wolf digimon. Garurumon was dodging the attacks as Lobomon was blasting away at the hair with his arm cannon, “ **Howling Laser!** ”. The hair was short enough now that it was no longer a problem.

Across the event center Baboongamon and Anklyomon were bracing themselves against the quick lashing of the hair tendril. “This is starting to get annoying!” Baboongamon let out with a grunt

“Well what are we going to do!?” Anklyomon shot back.

“This!”

Baboongamon stomped his foot the ground causing a fist to shoot up from the ground grabbing hold of the flailing hair.

“Got it!” Ankylomon swung its tail crushing and pinning the hair to the ground, “ **Tail Hammer!** ”

Kazemon was zipping around the hair with Gatomon in her arms. “Explain to me as to why you need to carry me. I'm pretty fast on my own and what if you drop me?” Gatomon was looking at the ground getting closer and farther at an alarming rate.

Kazemon was flying in a chaotic manner that would seem random but in 5 changes of directions the hair tendril was tied in a nice little bow.

“Well don’t cats always land on their feet?” Kazemon gave a laugh then spun around and threw Gatomon into the tangled hair she screamed then pulled out her claws, “ **Cat Scratch!** ”. The hair fell to the ground being cut. Gatomon also landed on her feet, if not a little woozy.

Lowemon was using his lance to wrap the offending tendril in a graceful manner you would only see with masters of the art of the lance. Agunimon could do nothing but watch as Lowemon handled the tendril all by himself. “I thought this was a tag team Lowemon!”

As the hair tendrils fell so did QueenChessmon’s defenses. Korikakumon had a straight shot at the mega.

“The plan is going smoothly, it’s time for the finishing blow. Beetlemon!” The armored beetle-man warrior landed by the giant yeti, hands already pulsing electricity.

“Man I really do love our combo move!” Beetlemon shouted joyously, pumping his fist in the air with enthusiasm. Korikakumon gave a grunt in response but his fangs were showing in his form of a smirk. QueenChessmon was still wailing about her hair and wasn’t paying attention.

He slammed his twin tomahawks into the ground causing a wave of ice to jut up from the ground parallel to each other cutting off all 5 of the hair tendrils and leaving QueenChessmon with an Edna Mode approved bob. She grabbed her Queen Stick in an attempt to escape the ice, everytime she broke through more ice just kept replacing the hole.

Korikakumon grabbed Beetlemon ,who was in a tucked position, tossed him in the air like a tennis ball and hit him towards the frantic QueenChessmon. Beetlemon rolled and straightened out yelling animatedly as his electricity began to intensify, “ **Plasma...!** ”.

Korikakumon threw his twin tomahawks, Eji and Oji, towards the flying Beetlemon faster than Beetlemon was actually going to catch up with him. Beetlemon jutted his hands out behind him grabbing the tomahawks with the forward momentum causing him to flip right as he was above QueenChessmon.

With a downward swing he was able to hit QueenChessmon hard enough with the now electrified tomahawks to make her crumble to the floor, shaking with the electricity running through her.

“ **Double Tomahawks.** ”

Beetlemon landed with both tomahawks in hand and the parrapel ice walls bursting into snow. The Chosen ran out to check on their digimon while those who helped in the fight were congratulated. However the Warriors knew they weren’t done yet, they needed answers.

Lowemon usually handled manners when it came to interrogation, but first... . “Akuma and Oscura how is your charge doing?”

“He’s had four vistiors so far, each one with odd color hair, but nonetheless each was harmless and only conversed with him. All of which are still in the building.”

“Was there a blonde one with pink eyes?”

“No sugar, there  _ is _ one with blue eyes, she seems especially angry about the situation.”

Lowemon gave a hum, then returned to the now regular QueenChessmon. Everyone’s eyes were on him as he walked closer to the still limp body. He raised his lance as energy began to gather around the tip. 

“Hey, what are you doing Koichi!? She’s already down.” Kari was stepping closer reaching a hand out.

He shot out the built up energy blasting QueenChessmon.

“ **Shadow Lance.** ” “NO!”

She ran over to Lowemon punching his armor. “Why!? She was already down, why did you have to do that!?”

Lowemon pushed her away. “Damn you’re loud. Pay attention she’s nowhere near being ‘down’.”

As he pointed his lance to where QueenChessmon was standing brushing herself off. She picked up her Queen Stick ready for another attack. “Wow, it’s good to get your emotions out when you're overwhelmed, don’t you think?”. Her tongue was sticking out and her finger on her cheek.

“It sure was nice playing with you kids, but if I don’t get back soon the hubby might run our kingdom into the ground!” She gave a wave and hopped on her Queen Stick riding it like a broom, her figure disappearing into the sky.

“What the hell was that?” Tai wondered out loud.

“We were out matched and she just played with us like she said. ‘Tantrum Mode’ brought out her destructive power but her focus was brought down to zero, she was hitting anything she didn’t have an aim.” Tommy said having devolved from Korikakumon.

“Tommy’s right, she easily could’ve taken us all out, even the warriors well except for me. Either she has another agenda or she felt like being merciful.” Koichi stood next to Kari as he devolved in a burst of darkness.

“No, that is not true we took care of her hair tendrils no problem and we managed to knock her out.” Davis pointed out.

“So you think ten champions and an ultimate can beat a powered up mega? Well I can do it myself but it is a hassle reigning me in. Mind you we lost six champions seconds into the battle. Levels don’t really decide battles to us but, that's between a level not two. This is definitely not the last time we’ll see her, but that’s fine since I put a tracker on her.” Koichi finished with a sinister look in his eyes.

The sounds of sirens in the distance brought their attention to the surrounding area. The event center wasn’t quite in shambles but it certainly wasn’t looking brand new. There were cracks in the ground burn marks and lighting marks everywhere. Certainly a scene that would be hard to explain.

“We should probably get out of here before the cops get here.” Tai announced as everyone was now back to their rookie forms. Izzy opened his laptop and the area was surrounded in a bright light. The group was plopped back down in Gennai’s house and none was worse for wear.

Shinya brushed himself off and began to head for the exit, he was stopped by a hand.

“Shinya where are you going?”

“To see Rai?” Shinya didn’t see what the problem was.

“And what are you gonna tell him?” Tommy gave him a look like the issue was obvious.

“Nothing? I’m going to check if he’s ok?” Shinya broke free from the hand and continued to the exit.

“At least let me go with you, we don’t know if BeelStarmon or QueenChessmon have any plans for him.”

Shinya relented, letting out a sigh, one more person wouldn’t be too bad.

“Oh I wanna go too, I'm not gonna pass up a chance to meet the infamous Rai.” Zoe had latched herself onto Shinya. Shinya was sure this hospital visit was going to be something entirely different from what he planned.

“I don’t really care about Rai, but I do need to pick up Akuma and Oscura from their watch points.”

“Wait as a fellow boxer I need to make sure the Rai Kami is fit so we can have our match.” J.P was puffing out his chance but Shinya can tell he was still having his inner fangirl moments.

“Wait, did you just say his name was Rai  _ Kami _ ?” Tommy held up his hand.

“Yeah that’s his last name why?” J.P was confused.

“I just met this boy who’s in the gardening club with the same last name is all.” Tommy said in a dismissive tone.

“His family is pretty big, he has a lot of siblings and what not, he could be a brother. He did say he had one who wasn’t afraid to get dirty that might be him.”

“Oh and when did you learn so much about Rai, Shinya?” Tommy raised his eyebrow, he wasn’t liking how Shinya was acting in regards to this Rai Kami. What kind of name is that, ‘Kami’? What family thinks so highly of themselves to have their surname mean god.

“Oh during our little date.”

“Date!? Oh is that how you ended up in Yoyogi Park when you were supposedly sick?” Tommy raised an accusing eyebrow at Shinya.

“It was a pretty good distraction from having to look at you the whole day, he’s pretty good looking.” Shinya felt that was a good diss to end the conversation and he turned to Joe asking for directions to the hospital.

-

The group of five made their way to the hospital with Koichi splitting off into the shadows to retrieve Akuma and Oscura. That left Shinya, Tommy, Zoe, and J.P to actually visit Rai. They stopped to get him a get well card and some flowers. Zoe asked the receptionist for his room number informing her he already had guests in there.

“That’s odd, maybe his sports sponsors are checking up on him.” 

The four made it to the room numbered 12716. Shinya was reaching for the door knob when the sound of conversation could be heard from inside the room. Tommy put a hand on his shoulder and a finger to his lips.

“It’s not my fault that there was a mishap with you getting here.” The voice was sarcastic.

“I’ll be sure to bring it up with Vulcanus, but you know he has his hands full dealing with that imp.” A motherly voice response.

J.P turned to Tommy and mouthed. “Vulcanus?” He just received a shrug back.

“Well it would be nice to get a call from my own  _ brother _ . You know thinking I’m the only one who made it over was literally crushing me, you know I’m a family man.” This voice was definitely Rai.

“Ok that’s all nice and dandy but what about my  _ hair _ !? Do you know how long it took to get that nice flowing action? 3  _ years _ , now I’m stuck with a bob till we can get back!”

Zoe let out a gasp. “Bob? No it can’t be…”

She threw open the door, to reveal Rai’s, pretty fancy, hospital room. It was still pristine white, but the bed was certainly newer and the machinery was high tech. Rai was sitting up right in his bed in the hospital gown, sitting by his bed was a blonde girl with crystal blue eyes. Leaning against the wall was a guy with a medium ponytail with a lotus flower pin, spinning in the middle of the floor in a rolly chair was a small girl with light blue hair with a medium sized style bob.

All figures were tense and seemingly ready to jump into action, what these four could do was beyond Shinya.

“Miny! Yuno! What are you doing here?” Zoe was looking between the two with a confused gaze.

The four relaxed when they saw who was busting down the hospital door. Well Miny relaxed then got super excited, jumping on Zoe giggling. “Omg hey Zoe! What are  _ you  _ doing here? Well I don’t really care but do you like my bob? It was a sudden change due to an accident,” She turned her head to glare at Rai. “but I’m sure if you think it looks ok then I’ll be able to manage.”

Shinya sure that the whole spiel took all of one breath for the small girl. His attention was caught by the man of the hour Rai himself.

“Hey Shin-Shin and You brought J.P!” The boxer waved his hand in greeting, putting the flowers on his bedside table.

“Thanks for checking up on little ole me.”

Shnya tried not to flinch at the stares of both the blonde girl, Yuno and Tommy. He honestly didn’t think the nickname meant much but he could feel the burning gazes of them both. He gave a light chuckle.

“What did I tell you, we’re friends now this is what friends do.”

“Oh you sure do work fast Rai, already making new friends.” the green haired boy said with a scoff.

“Well that's coming from the guy who can fill a missing spot for his gardening club, sounds like envy to me and you're already green.” Surprisingly it was Tommy to make the retort, was this the guy he met earlier?

“Oh look is that Tommy? I didn’t notice you there, you didn’t bump into me this time.”

Tommy’s mouth was opening and closing like a fish. He finally closed it to open up again. “Speaking of your gardening club, here's that new member I promised you.” Tommy’s hand slapped Shinya’s back making him stumble over to the bi colored haired boy.

Shinya was face to face with a condescending smirk. “Wow, Tommy, he doesn't look like the gardening type.”

Tommy gave a small laugh. “Well we all can’t look like a Grass type Gym Leader Shoku.”

At the name Baboongamon got oddly calm, it was a definite first for his partner. Shinya was analyzing the guy and all he could come up with was green, there was this definite earthly aura about him.

“Has he ever even tended to a garden? His hands are pretty soft, not even a hint of roughness on them.” Shoku grabbed Shinya’s hand and suddenly Shinya was staring face to face with a giant bird, or at least he thought he was. Shoku quickly retracted his hand as if the touch had burned him.

“What the...” They both whispered. However Rai cut into the conversation with a question.

“So is this the dude you were avoiding Shin-Shin?” He hopped off the bed without a problem. With a bright smile and an outstretched hand he greeted Tommy whose face was blank.

“Rai Kami, nice to meet you…”

Tommy took the hand with a little bit of force, Rai didn’t even flinch.

“Tomoki Himi, but you could call me Tommy.” His tone was short. Rai was completely unaffected and continued to smile.

“Hopefully you and Shin-Shin have made up already. He sure was down today.”

“Yeah we’ve made up but I don’t know if that should really concern you.”

“Tommy stop.” Shinya was giving him a glare. Thankfully Zoe slid in and introduced herself.

“Hey I’m Zoe Orimoto, I’m a friend of Miny and Yuno. If you don’t mind me asking how do they know you?”

Rai's smile lessened in size but was still there. “Oh well, Miny is my niece but since her dad, my brother, is older she’s the same age as us. And Yuno she’s my... .” Rai was looking out the window avoiding gaze.

“Friend.”

“Fiance.”

Well shit.

-

Koichi went to the building across the street which was a bit taller than the hospital and allowed for a clear look into Rai’s room, 12716. He sent Akuma and Oscura there when Joe said Rai was sent there after he was attacked by BeelStarmon. It was an easy job, just watch who goes into the room and notice any suspicious activity.

He made it to the roof where Akuma and Oscura were both in their rookie forms.

“Young master.” They both answered with bowed heads.

“He only received four visitors?”

“Yes, he had four but one left and exited the hospital going west. The rest are still there talking, the room seems to be protected against tampering. The listening device you made was disrupted.”

“That’s not possible, you would have to be very attuned with darkness to even know it was there.”

“So it was you who put this thing in big brother's room.” Koichi turned in surprise, no one should be able to sneak up on him with his spatial awareness. He turned around to find a guy who could easily pass as his and Koichi’s triplet, although his hair was jet black with purple streaks. He stepped out of the darkness with an accompanying chattering sound.

“What the…”

“Who are you!? Why are you trying to spy on big brother?”

Koichi was on the defensive ready to whip out his lance, but Akuma and Oscura leaped in front of him.

“Get back young master, he was the fourth person to visit Rai, but from here it’s clear he smells like a digimon!.”

The guy gave a growl. “Answer my question!”

Koichi raised his hands in a placating manner. “Your brother is being targeted, we’re just here to keep an eye on him.”

The guy’s growling grew in intensity but did not go away. “You reek of the scent of evil, and you stand with known evil digimon. I saw Devimon and LadyDevimon set up on this building and I faked leaving the hospital so I could watch you watch big brother.” A dark aura was starting to surround the guy.

Koichi gained a sinister grin, his lance appearing in his hand. “Don’t tell me we have a self-righteous digimon playing house? So Rai is another Chosen? Oh the story is just getting better!”

Koichi leaped forward with a darkness surrounding the area with Akuma and Oscura digivolving behind him.

“ **Dark Coffin** ”

**24 Hours until Lilithmon arrives.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. So what do you guys think about the Kami family? Thank you for reading and see you next time on TSDTRW. It will be a countdown style episode.


	19. Hours 24-9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of events that build up till our Demon Lord of Lust arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always leave a comment and enjoy today's chapter of TSDTRW.

**24 Hours until Lilithmon arrives - 6:00 PM**

“ **Dark Coffin.** ”

The four digimon were thrusted into the darkness. Koichi thrusted his lance forward to be met by a dog's claw. They both landed with a small distance between each other, Akuma and Oscura flanking their young master. Koichi protective gear materialized with his shoulders having a gold aspect, the back of his jacket was a picture of a lion and a sphinx .

“Hold on, Rai’s partner is a Dobermon? He doesn't seem like the virus type, but hey to each their own.”

The guy that was now revealed as a Dobermon let out a growl. “He’s not my partner, he’s my family!”

Dobermon leaped again trying to attack Koichi but was stopped by Akuma who flapped his wing creating a gust, “ **Leather Wing!** ”. The Dobermon who was surprisingly quick dodged the attack, changing his target to Oscura. 

Oscura already had her nail turned into her spear, “ **Darkness Spear!** ” However Dobermon let out a howl that turned it back, “ **Grey Noise!** ”. Oscura let out a shriek and tried for another attack.

“Ah, you stupid mutt! **Darkness Wave!** ”

Oscura raised her hand in an attempt to summon her bats, but nothing happened. “What…”.

She didn’t have time to think about it as Dobermon rushed forward and tackled her to the ground. Oscura was blocking most of the scratches. Koichi summoned a tendril of darkness that grabbed Dobbermon and tossed him off of Oscura.

Dobbermon landed on his feet and gave a growl. “This form doesn't do much in terms of attack, let's take it up a bit why don’t we.” Dobbermon let out an intense howl as he began to gather darkness around him. Koichi set up a wall of defense around him and his suitors.

“Sugar, doesn’t a partner digimon need it’s partner to digivolve?”

Koichi gave a nod. “From what we’ve seen yes, but this is still new territory for us. If it comes to it, I might need to take off my Neebelgne Ring.”

Both Akuma and Oscura gained solemn faces. “Young master, there is a reason Lowemon wears that ring.”

Koichi turned and back handed Akuma.

“I know, I don’t keep you around because you're overtly smart.” Akuma didn’t need to see his young master to tell his hand was shaking. The personality switch his young master gained from his time as Duskmon only came out when he was stressed or feeling overly emotional.

Koichi took a deep breath and spoke again. “I keep you around because I know you two will do what needs to be done.”

The mass of darkness finally gained a somewhat solid form, a feral voice emanating from it. “You wanna know a secret, you evil doers? I’m quite a special digimon, I have several mutations in my line that make me a cut above the rest.”

The darkness broke over this new digimon’s face.

Koichi instantly recognized the digimon. “Cerberumon?”

The darkness broke, revealing more of Cerberumon. “Oh yes I was once tasked with being the gatekeeper of the _Dark Area_ but thanks to my mutation, I have gained a promotion.”

He was clad in black mechanical armor, he was now a bi-pedal demon man digimon. But the focus was on his new arms now protected by armor and hands which were now twin cannons made to look like his face.

“This form is akin to that of a werewolf, fittingly called Cerberumon: Werewolf Mode! I have enough power to give even megas a run for their money, I will eradicate all evil from this world!”

This new Cerberumon dash behind the trio in a blink of an eye. He used his cannons to chomp down on both Akuma and Oscura, “ **Inferno Divide!** ”. The cannons lit-up firing shots at point-blank range. Akuma and Oscura went flying across the darkness. Koichi whirled on the enemy with his lance raised as Cerberumon landed a kick to his chest.

Koichi was pushed back but he remained on his feet, his fractal code appearing around his hand. He sent out a wave of darkness as a cover to buy him some time. 

“ **Hellfire!”**

He swiped his fractal code as he felt his form change.

**EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION**

“ **Lowemon!** ”

The wave barely bought him any time however, as just as he finished his digivolution he was hit with scorching hot flames. He let out a scream as he fell to one knee. Cerberumon was standing over him, it’s cannon raised.

“It is my sole purpose in life to get rid of the evil that plagues the Digital World, I will be seeing you in the Dark Area.”

Koichi was reaching for the ring on his right index finger when he heard the pause of the cannon charging.

“Why do you have the Neebelgne Ring!” Cerberumon took a step back.

Koichi still had his hand on the ring ready to release his limiter. “Oh so you know about my ring.”

Cerberumon had both cannon raised now. “Yes, that ring belongs to the Executor of Darkness. He is in the same class as me, we both deal with purging evil in the world. But I heard he went dark for a millennia or at least that's what I remember.”

As the two were in a stalemate Oscura and Akuma made their way back worse for wear even de digivolving back to BlackGatomon and Tsukaimon. Koichi took his hand off the ring.

“Hey, if we are both purgers of evil that means we are colleagues, right? You can lower your cannons and we can have a nice chat.”

To show his gesture of faith he let go of his digivolution and turned back to Koichi, he hands in the air. Cerberumon let out a low growl and put up his mirage again resembling the twins. Koichi let out a sigh and the field of darkness lifted. They boys were back on the roof, they were well into night time by the looks of it.

Koichi’s phone began to beep, catching up with the time he was in the battle. Most of them were from his brother trying to see where he was. He simply texted back a word that would excuse his actions.

“Ring.”

He pocketed his phone and turned back to…

“I don’t want to call you just Cerberumon, or Hell’s Watchdog. What’s your name?”

“Meikai, Meikai Kami.”

“So, about that name?”

\- **20 Hours till Lilithmon arrives** \- 9:00 PM

“If I get rid of Shinya then Tommy will have to love me! Yes that’s right I just need to get rid of him, but how?”

Mari was sitting in her room in front of a shrine dedicated to Tommy, she had a _friend_ get her pictures of the boy at every angle. But that supid Shinya Kanbara was _always_ with him. Most of the pictures were scratched due to her taking Shinya's face out.

There was a knock on the window, she got up opening it. A cloaked figure stepped through and landed several bandages showing from his hands. Mari gave a frown, “Why has Shinya Kanbara not been dealt with!?”

She threw a pair of scissors at the figure only for them to bounce off. “I have been trying Mari, but his bond with Tomoki is strong, even after the _Darkness Love_ revision. He should’ve had eyes only for you but, well you know what happend.”

Mari slammed her fist on her desk. “The ad promised instant beauty and the power to bewitch any man to follow your every whim! So why the hell isn’t it working?”

Mari's uniform was a bit disheveled which gave view to right below her right collarbone. There was a mark in the form of a green circle with writing within a crossroads of sorts starting at one point and branching out into four. The mark was pulsing a light green.

She whirl on the cloaked figure, “You will bring me Shinya Kanbara. I will deal with him myself, then I will overdose Tommy on _Darkness Love_ so he can **only** see me!”

The cloaked figure let out a sigh but bowed nonetheless and turned back toward the window. The wind began to blow showing what was underneath. A golden thunderbolt on a black shirt with jeans, his hands wrapped in bandages.

 **\- 18 Hours until Lilithmon arrives -** 11:00 PM

Shinya was sitting awake in his bed thinking about the events earlier today. After the news of Rai’s and Yuno’s relationship was addressed, Shinya didn’t really know how to feel. Rai wouldn’t look at him but he didn’t deny the authenticity of the statement either.

Apparently they were childhood friends who grew up together and the marriage was arranged by his parents. Yuno took the relationship very seriously but Rai was obviously a flirt in his own right. Then Shinya also had to think about Miny’s odd behavior.

Just before going to the hospital the QueenChessmon they fought had just gained a newly acquired bob and then Miny suddenly had one? And what about this ‘duty’ she had to carry out? But if she was QueenChessmon, didn’t Koichi put a tracker on her? So we should know where she is.

And what about Shoku? Something was definitely up with the Kami family. Baboongamon seems to be drawn to him, but what about that bird he saw?

He decided he needed some answers so he took a deep breath concentrating on going into the reaches of his mind. His body was still sitting on his bed but he felt himself take shape in his mind in a transparent form. He began walking through the mindscape. He came across a series of 4 doors, each looking like a sort of progression.

The first of the doors was a small door trimmed with green fur and was the smallest of the doors. The next one was definitely where Baboongamon rested, it was trimmed with his brown fur and rocks sprinkled throughout. The third door was actually flipped, instead of rocks however it was crystals with a touch of bright orange fur. The last door however was the oddest, it had both a hat and a long coat hanging on the opposite sides.

He walked up to the most familiar door and knocked on it. 

“Baboongamon!?”

A growl was received.

“What do you think of Shoku?” The door was opened to reveal a cave just like the one Shinya first found him in.

“He reminds me of home, before I was a Warrior.”

“And where is that, I don’t really know much about your past.”

“I lived around a cave deep in a forest area with my troop.”

“Troop?”

“Yes, Baboongamon are known for living in troops. I was the son of our troop leader so I was expected to be the leader after he croaked. Our leader is determined by the mon with the hardest shell, so I trained and trained till I could withstand the most powerful of blows. But for me it wasn’t enough, I needed to be stronger, I needed to be _better_.”

The hairs that made up Baboongamon’s fur were standing straight up in growing rage.

“And I was, but it still wasn’t enough. It was on a patrol of our territory that everything went up in flames. A group led by SlashAngemon and Pidomon started to ravage the area, they went for the youngest first. Koemon were deleted without a second thought, I was the only one left standing thanks to my shell but last thing I remember is being taken care of by a Gotsumon and a Meteormon telling me I was in a place called the Earth Faction.”

“Wait there’s a lot going on there. First, what are Holy digimon doing ravaging a forest? And second, you weren’t already in the Earth Faction?”

“I never found out the reason for it but after fighting my way to become the Warrior of Earth and the _many_ years after. It has become very clear that just because a mon can be considered ‘holy’ doesn't mean they will pass judgement from Jupitermon or god forbid Plutomon.”

Shinya thought back to his late night conversation with Tommy about the Celestial Angels being ‘factionist’. He didn’t want to think about what other issues could be wrong with the notion of holy digimon as well, but it sounded like there might be elitism added to the mix. ‘Jupitermon and  
Plutomon’, Shinya didn’t remember Tommy bringing up those names before. He let it go due to the fact that so many digimon exist that he couldn’t fault Tommy for forgetting to mention two.

“And you not already being in the Earth Faction?”

“Contrary to popular belief Shinya-boy, all digimon don’t have to live in factions. My troop just lived in a nameless forest that was attacked by some holy digimon. I never even heard of factions before the village was attacked. We just lived in our little part of the forest and kept a good relationship with the digimon that wandered in and left.”

Shinya was brought out of the mindscape by a knock on his window. He went over to it to find out it wasn’t a knock but it was Rai standing outside tossing pebbles into his window, wearing the same clothes from their 'date'. Shinya opened the window and whispered yell at the boxer.

“Rai what are you doing out of the hospital? Did they clear you for discharge?”

Rai gave a toothy smile. “Yeah everything is a-okay with me.”

Shinya gave him an unimpressed look but he humored the guy anyway. Rai took the silence for an invitation to climb up the gutter rail and onto his roof.

“Are you sure you should be climbing a house, especially just getting out of the hospital?” Shinya was also worried about him waking his brother up.

Who was he kidding it was Takuya they were talking about. Shinya joined him outside on the roof with his knees pulled to his chest, it was early April after all so it was a bit chilly.

“So about Yuno, when were you gonna tell me?”

Rai looked out into the star in the sky. “Well, um, I didn’t want you to be weirded out about me being betrothed and what not.”

“It doesn't weird me out but I don’t want to be stepping on any toes.” Shinya was more worried about Yuno herself than anything. She definitely didn’t seem like someone you would want to be enemies with. Rai lightly punched his shoulder and gave a small laugh. Shinya looked down at the hand to see Rai’s hands were bandaged again

“Hey what happened to your hand this time?” Shinya asked.

Rai gave a hum looking down at his hand tilting his head in confusion. “What do you mean. My hands are always bandaged.”

Baboongamon was growling.

“No you said you hurt your hand in a kitchen accident.”

Rai looked away with an awkward smile, but it shifted quickly into something dark. “Dang, I wanted to take you in quietly but it’s time to add a little force.”

“Shinya-boy get out of there now!”

“Wha-.”

-

**16 Hours until Litihmon arrives- 1:00 AM**

Koichi still couldn’t believe what he was told, it just didn’t make sense and he was talking about the digital world.

No well, if most digimon are based on real world animals, machines, and some even mythological figures, even going into religion. He just couldn’t wrap his head around what Meikai showed him. They talked about Koichi’s side of things but when it got to Meikai he assured Koichi it would just be better to show him what was going on.

He finally made it back to the apartment he and his brother were using in order to be closer to the school. It was part of their plan, with Ophanimon convincing their parents that the school was funding it, but in reality It was wired through some _digital_ interference.

Since it was dark out he was letting Akuma rest on his head with Oscura nestled in his arms. He got out his keys and opened the door to see Kouji setting in at the table with the light overhead light on. He always struggles to stay awake at night, it must have to do with their respective elements. He’s eyes were sunken in with dark circles as if he'd been awake for days rather than just hours.

“Oh god Kouji, what’s wrong!” Koichi hobbled over to his brother, being careful not to disturb Akuma and Oscura who he laid on the table, who promptly curled into each other.

“The balance between Light and Darkness is starting to lean over to the dark side, there’s just so much of it. Lobomon is _scared_ , he’s never scared. He’s starting to recede too far in my mind to even talk too, I might have to rely on KendoGarurumon since he’s become restless and wants to fight. But even with _that_ he wants to take care of _all_ Darkness but that would only tip the balance in Light’s favor.”

Koichi placed some tea in front of his brother as he took one for himself. “He’s not wrong when it comes to balance, there are a lot of darkness based beings in the human world as of late. Me, forces under Lilithmon, and Meikai.”

“Who’s Meikai?” Kouji asked, taking a sip from his tea, rubbing his temple.

“He’s Rai’s partner digimon, who just happens to be the next in line to be the ruler of the Dark Area of the Digital World.”

Kouji let out a pained laugh, but still a genuine one.

“Ruler of the Dark Area, that sounds pretty evil doesn't it?”

“Actually quite the opposite, the ruler of the Dark Area is quite important when it comes to the lives of all digimon. After Anubimon determines if a digimon’s data is sent back to the Village of Beginnings or trapped in the Dark Area, and the data is sent to the Dark Area. The ruler of the Dark Area has to keep at bay all the digimon sent there. That includes the Seven Demon Lords.”

Kouji almost spit out his drink.

“Who let’s a digimon have that much power? Enough to keep all Seven Demon Lords at bay?”

Koichi shook his head.

“It is true that he keeps the digimon at bay but he also works in tandem with Anubimon, The ruler of the Dark Area also goes around judging digimon and if they are seen fit to be damned they he deletes them sending them to Anubimon. His focus is split and so is his governorship of the Dark Area with Anubimon.

The evil digimon that make up the Dark Area govern themselves mostly with the most powerful taking charge, and I’m sure who you can guess that is.”

“The Demon Lords.”

Koichi gave a nod.

“They each, at the lowest level of the Dark Area, reside in their own Towers which tends to attract digimon who have committed their respective sin. The Demon Lords have been plotting for some time everything from Lucemon to Demon to the dark spores. With the changing of rulers and Anubimon weakening the Demon Lords took their golden ticket opportunity. They sent out flyers to digimon not even in the Dark Area yet looking to amass an army.”

Koichi pointed to Akuma and Oscura.

“I don’t know what Lady Ophanimon was truly thinking by sending those two into the Dark Area but it better be for a damn good reason.”

Koichi let out a sigh.

“If Meikai is the next in line to be the ruler of the Dark Area why is he in the Human World.”

Koichi let out another sigh. “That is where the story gets spotty. He says that he felt a pull to the human world and that’s when he met Rai. He admired his strength and started calling him big brother as a sign of admiration but also Rai saying he was part of the big Kami family now. Honestly I don’t buy a word of that story.”

Kouji let out a hum. “What do we know about Rai?”

“That seems like a question for Shinya but there are three more members of the Kami family we know of. Miny and Yuno from our class and a green haired boy.”

That got a raised eyebrow from Kouji. “And now Miny and Yuno are a part of the mix? I can say I felt weird vibes from Yuno but me and Zoe had definite suspicions about Miny. She made a comment about Zoe ‘smelling familiar’. But with the added context with Meikai we can be sure that Miny might be onto us.”

Koichi took a sip from his tea. “All of this on top of Lilithmon breaching the portal today. Not only do we have to worry about the Kami family we have to worry about a being of pure evil doing whatever she’s doing.”

Koichi raised his tea in the air as did his brother. “To be a Legendary Warrior?”

“To be a Legendary Warrior.”

-

**11 Hours until Lilithmon arrives- 6:00 AM**

“Shinya-boy! Shinya-boy! WAKE UP!”

Shinya let out a groan as he felt his head throb. He lifted his head only to hit it against the pole he was bound to. 

“He’s awake bandages.”

“Oh wow Shoku you're quite the one with words.”

Shinya opened his eyes to find himself in a warehouse that was dimly lit with lights. He was face to face with a craze looking Rai and his brother Shoku behind him both in their school uniforms.

“What’s going on! Rai let me go!”

Rai let out a cackle touching Shinya’s face before backhanding him. Shinya could taste the iron in his mouth, the tell sign of blood. He was ready to use his powers to get him out but it wasn’t working.

“Don’t even bother Shin-Shin.” The way Shoku said it made his skin crawl. “Our client put your friend to sleep for a bit so you're on your own. It didn’t last long for you friend Tomoki but he was more experienced wasn’t he.” 

Shinya was starting to panic, if that was Baboongamon yelling at him that must have been the last of his energy. And it’s true Shinya wasn’t very intune with his element enough to control it without some help form Baboongamon. He steeled his resolve however he couldn’t let the enemy see his fear.

“Who’s your client?” If Shinya could keep them talking he could probably get away with less injuries.

Rai, who still had the bandages, answered his question with another question. “Do you know what it’s like living in the digital world as a digimon associated with darkness?”

Shinya shook his head, how would he know? He hasn’t even been to the Digital World and from what he’s heard, he's starting to have second thoughts about wanting to go.

“How could you, you're only human after all. Well let me tell you about it. As a digimon your digivolution line is predetermined, changes are always called ‘dark digivolution’. As if it was unnatural, not just a fact of life. It’s funny actually, I was a Wizardmon in the magic corps under Seraphimon. We were sent into battle against a horde of Evilmon led by a Mephismon, we were losing the battle when I wished for more power, willed it if you will, and I digivolved. But it wasn’t the ‘normal’ digivolution of a Wizardmon.”

Rai waved his hand over his face, his form changing. Shinya got a glimpse of a bandaged covered heave with a purple silk wrap on its head. Rai waved his hand again and his face was back to normal.

“I won the battle by using my new acquired powers. My species are known as the ‘Necromancers’. I used our fallen allies and enemies to overwhelm and destroy the Mephismon. Do you wanna know what I got in return for single handedly saving our corps?”

Rai was now uncomfortably close to Shinya, he could feel Rai shaking in anger, he gave a long slow lick up his cheek, then whisper in his ear. “I was cast aside and cast out of the corps for being of dark origin, all because I was a Mummymon instead of those stupid Mystimon. I couldn't find work, everyone looked at me as if I was a _monster_ , ha! It seems even literal digital monsters have their own monsters right?”

Rai stepped back with his arms spread wide; he was simply talking aloud now, venting his frustrations. 

“Well, Shin-Shin, this mon gotta eat, so I went to the only place they would take me, the Darkness Faction. It was mostly bad mons over that way, and to be honest I used to think nothing good could come from them either. But then I had to adapt to _survive_ , I became a hitmon. Do you need somemon gone? I was your mon. I do well for myself, that is until I got the biggest job of my lifetime working for-”

A giant door opened to the warehouse and a female shadow entered. Shinya didn’t need to be a genius to see who this person was.

“Your client,” The shadow stepped into the light with her school uniform disheveled showing her right collar bone glowing a lime green pulsing like a beating heart. Beads of sweat forming and her brows furrowed.

“Mari Yuko.”

-

**9 Hours until Lilithmon arrives- 8:00 AM**

“Shinya wake up, you're gonna make us late! You better not be planning something else again!” Takuya woke up on time today, something he seems to be doing more often these days. Tommy walked up the stairs at the moment.

“Hey, Takuya, are you ready for today?” Tommy said the sentence as if it was small talk but they both knew that today was anything but.

“Honestly no, but can’t let anyone else know that.” Takuya gave a small smile and knocked on his brother's door, it swung open with ease. Takuya and Tommy didn’t waste a second rushing into the room. Shinya’s window was open, the curtain blowing with the wind. Tommy checked the bed as Takuya looked out the window looking for clues.

“This is definitely not the day for this to be happening!” Takuya brought his hands up to his hair pulling at it.

“Check with the others, I’ll call J.P and see if he can track the band signature.” Tommy and Takuya dashed out of the door going to work placing calls.

They settled on meeting at the school, J.P dragged Izzy and Joe along using the computer lab to teleport in. They were all on the roof trying to figure out what happened. Well it would help if Takuya wasn’t yelling at their tech expert.

“What do you mean you can’t find him!” Takuya’s fingertips were sparking threatening to ignite.

“I mean that the signal is being jammed Takuya.” Izzy was typing away at his computer. He turned the device around pointing to the screen. Several dots were on the screen, Izzy pointed to a cluster of eight.

“This is us right now, both the bands and our digivices give off unique energy signatures. Since most of the Warriors are here on the roof, your dots are right here together with mine and Joe’s.” He expanded the map and more dots appeared. “You can now see everyone else but do you see another Warrior dot?”

Takuya just clenched his hands together.

“OK then, right now I can not find Shinya’s energy signature. Wherever he is there must be a jamming device incase of tracking.” Izzy turned his computer around and began to type again.

“But that shouldn’t be possible in theory as the bands are powered by the Spirits. So maybe it isn’t being jammed but something is going wrong with Shinya’s spirits?” J.P had his chin resting in his hand.

“Who could even affect his spirits like that, this is something that’s happened before.” Zoe thought aloud.

Tommy’s eyes widened as he thought about what happened to Kumamon and Korikakumon. “Wait, actually there is a precedent.” Everyone turned to the Warrior of Ice.

“When I first met Mari, my focus was entirely set on her drowning everything else out. I didn’t really pay it any mind but when I tried to digivolve when we were fighting QueenChessmon it didn’t work, it was like my Spirits went silent. They told me they blacked out and couldn’t remember when. But I'm sure it was the day I meet her my spirits went silent. And even when I rejected her infront of everyone she didn’t let up, that girl is obsessed with me and to her the one thing standing in her way is Shinya.”

Kouji gave a snort. “If this was another time I would congratulate you but I have more tack then that.”

Zoe hit him upside the head, and nodded hers. “Tommy is right I had to step in when she was screaming at the top of her lounges, ‘What is it about him? Anything he can do I can do 10x better! He won’t treat you like I would, he’s not good looking, what can he do for you!? He’s worthless, spineless, and all ugly things don’t deserve to live!’. She’s a complete psycho, but I also had my run in with her and it did leave me with more questions than answers.” Zoe let out a sigh and held the bridge of her noses.

“Kazemon and Zephrymon both agree that she’s completely human, but the similarities between her and Lilithmon are alarming. Both being fueled by lust and both hate other women.”

Joe shook his head. “Just because she acts like Lilithmon doesn't means that she is connected to her, does it?”

Koichi gave a hum, “But it does mean that she would be likely to be swayed or used by Lilithmon.”

Takuya kicked the gate surrounding the roof. “How does any of this help us find my brother!”

“It helps add motive and cross out places it won’t be Takuya. The window wasn’t forced open so it wasn’t a kidnapping, at least not at first. Shinya opened the window himself and climbed out and since it wasn’t me, the only other person it could be, is Rai in this situation.”

Koichi shook his head. “It wasn’t him he was still in the hospital the whole night and he’s definitely not a bad guy.”

Takuya raised an eyebrow. “And how can you be so sure Koichi?”

Koichi let out a laugh. “Well I was there watching him with his _little brother_.”

Izzy stopped typing. “Could it be somebody wearing his face?” Every looked at Izzy as if he grew another head.

“We know for a fact that digimon can hide in plain sight, we dealt with a Mummymon and an Arukenimon with that ability and we know BeelStarmon can do the same. What’s to say the enemy hasn’t developed that ability.”

Kouji nodded. “We dealt with a Murmukusmon who could mimic digimon, so it is possible. But that was digimon not humans.”

Izzy shook his head. “On the contrary Kouji anything can be done to data with the right code. So it is entirely possible.”

“So a digimon disguised as Rai kidnapped Shinya and now his spirits are knocked out so the band isn’t able to be tracked? Great! Just great!” Takuya was barely keeping himself together.

“What now?” Zoe asked aloud.

“We try to figure out if Mari indeed plays a part in this and in the meantime J.P, Izzy, and Joe search for Shinya the old fashion way. Find Mari’s home address and search there for clues, then look for any buildInga that would be easy to hide and hostage in.”

“Oh god this is the search for the 8th child all over again!” Joe cried.

“But this time I’m positive the stakes are _much_ higher.” Izzy closed his laptop looking at the still fuming Takuya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, poor Shinya. Will they find him in time? Find out next time on TSDTRW.


	20. Hours 8-3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the clock counts down and the stakes rise how will the Chosen and Legendary Warriors fair?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and make sure to leave a comment and or kudos.

**8 Hours Until Litithmon Arrives- 9:00 AM**

Tommy couldn’t blame Takuya at all but someone had to be the calm one in this situation.

Well he tried at least.

He walked into class a little more irritated than usual. Today was just not shaping up and he needed that to change quickly.

It was about to get worse.

This time he was the one being tackled into. “Oh god who is it this time?” He thought to himself. His actual words were harsher.

“What the fuck do you want?” There were some animalistic undertones to his voice.

“Oh, Tommy is that how you want to talk to your future wife?”

Damnit.

Mari didn’t even try to dial back her advances this time. However she did look a bit worse for wear, her uniform wasn’t as nice and pristine as it normally is and her purple butterfly clip had a crack in it. Was that a green tattoo? She was also breathing heavily, or was it panting? Oh hell no, was she grinding on him?

He shoved Mari off of him drawing the attention of his classmates.

“What Tommy, I did what you said I needed to do. Shinya isn’t here so your other options are gone, you have no choice but to _love_ me!”

Well great no investigation needs to be made into her now.

“Who said he wasn’t here Mari, he just went to the bathroom. He'll be here shortly.” Tommy gave her a confused look with a small smile.

Mari reeled back with a frown on her face. The door to the classroom gave a jangle in an attempt to open. Tommy was studying Mari's expression and it turned into something anxious. The finally opened to reveal it was simply the quartet of Chosen. Mari’s expression was still taunt but was more confident than before.

“Mr Kanbara, what a nice surprise!”

Her face dropped.

“Oh that must be him, don’t you wanna say hi?” Tommy had on a warm smile that was a stark contrast to his icy insides. Mari let out a huff and walked toward the door, shoving her way through each Chosen that were having their own conversation by the door.

Mari swung the door open to find their teacher talking to a Kanbara indeed, but he wasn’t Shinya. Mari’s mouth was hanging open. Tommy came up from behind Mari standing over her menacingly.

“I’m sure you remember Shinya’s brother Takuya?”

Takuya flashes the duo a smile and returns to talking with their homeroom teacher. Mari was opening and closing her mouth like a fish, Tommy would have laughed if this were different circumstances. He placed a hand on her shoulder whispering in Mari’s ear.

“Is there something you want to tell me, Mari?”. The hand on her shoulder began to grow colder by the second. To her credit she didn’t flinch and flipped over giving her own smile.

“It’s okay _hubby_. You’ll never find him anyway, plus it won’t be anywhere in your mind to care.” She raised on her tippy-toes and placed a kiss on Tommy’s cheek, he visibly cringed at the act. She just giggled and blew him a kiss as she walked off.

“Where is she going, class is about to start?” Davis appeared behind him having ended the conversation with the other Chosen.

“Tell the other Chosen, to get ready to move out during lunch we have a rescue mission.”

Davis attempted to ask more questions but Tommy was already on the way to talk to Takuya. Luckily when he walked up the teacher and Takuya were done talking. Takuya turned to Tommy with a serious expression.

“We think we’ve found a way to get Shinya’s location.”

Tommy let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “How, we already discussed that the band is powered by the spirits and his spirits are out of commision.”

Takuya scratched his neck. “Well the twins said it was something along the lines of forcibly waking them up. Me and Kouji are gonna go into the spirit realm and try to connect to Shinya that way. Koichi and Zoe are gonna stay behind in case anything happens back here.”

Tommy gave a nod. “Well we know for a fact Mari is the one pulling the strings here, but she just ran off. I’ll text J.P and let him know to wrap it up.”

Tommy walked back into class and sat back down as he could barely pay attention. He got a response to the message not a minute later.

“Kinda too late for that!” 

**Meanwhile at the Yuko Residence**

J.P wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, he was never really sent out on recon missions in the Digital World. He was the technician and the muscle, neither makes for a very stealthy individual. Not to mention he had both Izzy and Joe with him, what a day it was turning out to be. 

The three found her address rather quickly thanks to Izzy’s computer skills. It wasn’t the grandest of apartments and was in a lower class neighborhood just by the school. Their story was that they were a part of a recruitment team for a nearby college.

Izzy rang the doorbell and gave a knock only for it to creek open. The trio traded glances quickly and J.P raised his fist crackling with electricity. J.P went in first with Izzy and Joe trailing behind. The apartment was small but consisted mostly of space that consisted of a small kitchen and two rooms with the living room connecting them.

The house was mostly tidy, barely touched, almost as if no one lived in it for some time. A room to the right of the kitchen had its door creaked J.P took to that room while Izzy began to look at a laptop sitting on the kitchen table. Joe was looking around the living room and the kitchen trying to find any other clues.

J.P walked closer to the room finding a small note on the door you couldn’t see from afar.

“Mari’s Room Stay Out!!!”

J.P pushed the door open and stepped into well, a stalker's fantasy. There were pictures of Tommy everywhere. On her walls, on her closet doors, on her vanity mirror. It was beyond creepy. What was worse was that each photo wasn’t just Tommy however there were only three pictures that had Tommy alone. Every other one had a head cut out and based on the pile that was collected in a trash can was one Shinya Kanbara.

So that marks the obsession theory as a yes, but that isn’t enough to put her behind the kidnapping. He walked over to her desk as he heard a low whistle. J.P snapped around searching the room for the source. His attention was drawn to the vents and as he put his hand to it found it was just the wind blowing.

“J.P! I found something, come quick!”

Well if it was something worth yelling in enemy territory, then it better be something major.

J.P made his way out of the room and out to the living room standing by Izzy who was at the table with Joe looking over his shoulder. They both had looks of disbelief on their faces.

“What is it Izzy?” J.P took a look at the computer screen.

Izzy shook his head clearing his thoughts as he pulled something up. “Here is a list of past locations Mari has put into a location services. One in particular is in a warehouse district that is abandoned, so no unwanted visitors.”

J.P took a picture and sent it to the other warriors.

“That was the least shocking of what was on the laptop however. We found an instant beauty pop up ad that was pushed to this computer _specifically_ , and well… Look for yourself.”

Izzy moved the computer so J.P could see what was on the screen.

It had rather compromising imagery to say the least. There was a black haired woman who was dressed in a purple with gold trimmed kimono with black leather boots and an updo with golden pins in her hair. She was leaning comically on a box of text that even then her position was used to attract focus to her _assets_. She had a devilish smile that showed off two fangs.

The box of text had the words.

“Do you want ultimate beauty with the power to have any man at your whim?” With a yes or no below it.

“That has to be Lilithmon. But what made her target Mari?” J.P wasn’t seeing the connection.

Joe brought out some pill bottles. “I was going through the cabinets in the kitchen but only found some vitamins, so I went to the bathroom. And you know what they say, you can tell a lot from what’s in a person's bathroom.”

He pushed up his glasses. “One of these hulls is a type of antidepressant that is on the rather strong side of the spectrum. It seems as though Mari might have a lack of control over her emotions and this bottle is rather full. 

And this hull is adderall which can help with anxiety attacks or a past trauma that she could be trying to forget by staying focused, again a rather full bottle. I can not attest to the truth but as a doctor and seeing her names on these pills we might be dealing with a rather dangerous girl.”

J.P didn’t like complex situations such as this, he would much rather fight battles that are painted out very clearly. This is the bad guy, Ophanimon sent the Warriors to fight them and then they returned to base. Mari is turning out to be a problem with morality issues. Do we try to find out the source of her problems or just deal with her due to the fact she might be in league with a Demon Lord?

J.P looked over the ad once more and saw a glitch in the screen.

“Hey Izzy? Can you see what that is?” J.P pointed to the spot on the screen. Izzy moved the mouse to the spot revealing a countdown clock. Izzy hissed to himself.

“Don’t tell me there’s another missile!”

J.P saw little text under the clock, “Breaching through the Crown!!!”

Joe gave a gulp. “This says we only have till 2:00! I thought we had four days with the breach at 6!?”

J.P slammed his fist on the table. “Our information was wrong and if she’s not coming through the portal at the soccer field it must have to do with Mari herself!”

There was a sudden clapping coming from within the apartment. The trio looked up trying to find the noise.

“Well that was some great detective work there boys! It’s a good thing I came to deal with this pitiful mess while Bandages keeps _Shin-Shin_ entertained. To think a boy like him was given the blessing of that old _fool_. Despicable.”

J.P recognized the voice from the hospital. “Shoku? What are you doing here!?”

At that moment J.P got a text from Tommy. “J.P you need to wrap it up now!”

J.P texted back a quick, but sarcastic, reply. “Kinda too late for that!” 

Shoku stepped from around the corner and into the living room. He had on his school uniform and a piece of straw hanging from his mouth. “Do you boys want to know a secret for growing beautiful flowers? You sing to them as encouragement.”

Shoku took in a breath and opened his mouth in an o shape and began to sing in a high soprano. J.P could feel his senses begin to numb, he turned to Izzy and Joe to see them both already slack jawed and eyes glazed over. He tried to make his way over and put a stop to the singing, that was pretty good if he was being honest, by zapping Shoku. He was a step away from the boy when he felt himself fall to the floor blacking out.

“ **Polyphony, No.1** ”

J.P's phone began to buzz repeatedly, Shoku bent down and picked it up. It was Tommy asking if everything was alright. Shoku gained a huge smile walking over to the open computer pushing Izzy out of the way knocking him into Joe and onto the floor.

He sent Tommy pictures of the warehouse and the Lilithmon ad with a, “Mission complete, meet you there.”

Shoku gave a laugh and snapped his hands. The trio got up slowly with their eyes glazed over and gathered around him.

“Why don’t we get ready for your friends?”

**3 and a half Hours Until Litihmon Arrives- 10:30**

Shinya opened his eyes after Mari showed up earlier looking a mess and she told him her big plan.

She wants Tommy all to herself.

Oh did you expect a convoluted plan about being wronged in society? Shinya would be lying if in his time being captured he hadn’t thought of the possible villain monologues that could happen.

Mari could’ve been born into a beautiful family that pushed her aside because she was ugly, then she had the ‘change’ the kids in class were talking about. She could’ve been a nice girl who was naive once she got to see the evil of the world and knew appearance was everything and she had to adapt and her mortality was clouded.

His favorite also happened to be the darkest using the information he gathered from knowing her. It needed to connect TK and Kari, with the sudden ‘change’ the kids mentioned, so hear him out. It goes like this:

Mari bust down the doors of the warehouse in a rage. Rai, or not Rai, and Shoku turn to her. She points at Shoku.

“Check my house, those pesky Chosen and Warriors might be there looking for clues.” Shoku leaves with a nod disappearing like those ninjas do in anime. Mari walks up and grabs Shinya’s chin, forcibly, digging her nails into his cheeks drawing blood, the entire time a face of disgust.

“Shinya Kanbara, I hate people like you. Ugly, worthless, spineless, cattle that walks around being a waste of space for people like me. Beautiful, valuable, strong, and gods walking on Earth. You’re just like Kari Yagami always looking for sympathy from precious Takeru. He was mine first, did you know that Shinya?”

Shinya could tell she was slowly losing her sanity, beads of sweat dripping from her forehead and her uniform the way it was. Not to mention the pulsing circle that was under her collarbone. This whole thing was starting to make his head hurt.

“Me and Kari used to be good friends but it ended sourly when we both fell for sweet Takeru, but he only seemed to have eyes for _her_ . That's when I released what I needed to do, I was ready to give Takeru _all_ of me. He would be my first, and me his, but again he rejected me. Kari found out and apparently now I was a ‘slut and a tramp’ can you believe it, my good friend calling me those names?”

Shinya was starting to tear up a bit. He honestly didn’t know if it was from the pain or the story but he went with the pain.

“I fell into a depression though it pains me to admit it. I’m supposed to be on pills but those aren’t really good for you! You must know the best course of option right? I became all those things she called me. That same day I received a pop up ad granting beauty and the ability to make men's heads turn. Of course I said yes and this mark appeared on me changing me instantly just like it said!”

Mari pulled her uniform down revealing the mark Shinya had to hold his gasp as he didn’t want to make his cuts deeper than they already were. It really screamed Demon Lord if he had to categorize it. It was still pulsing like a heartbeat and the skin around it was starting to lose its color if you looked hard enough.

Mari shoved her uniform up and released Shinya walking over to Rai, or still Not Rai, holding his cheek. “Be a dear and while I go get Tommy to be mine, would you keep our friend company?”

Rai, Not Rai, walked over to him uncomfortably close again unwrapping his bandage revealing a claw for a hand as he traced his uniform making cuts. He could feel Rai, Not Rai, drawing blood from each cut, and Shinya is not ashamed to say that he let out screams of pain. Rai, Not Rai, just laughed and licked the blood driping from the cuts. For that was only the beginning of Rai’s, Not Rai’s, way of entertaining him.

And scene.

Now wasn’t that exciting? Gripping? Developing multiple characters and raising the stakes of the story?

Now don’t get Shinya wrong it all happened but it wasn't as dramatic as he makes it seem. No Mari walked in with a crazed look in her eyes, Shoku left on his own saying he was bored. The actual story was Kari liked T.K and Mari tried to get with him after and Kari didn’t like that and that's basically it. Pretty basic if you ask Shinya, so for his sake he will go with the dramatized version.

However the torture from Rai, Not Rai, was _very real_ , he couldn’t even call what he still had left of his unifrom clothes anymore. It didn’t help that the warehouse was a bit drafty with a cold air running through it. And he still had the headache from before! The ‘entertainment’ reached a lull so he decided to fill the space with conversation. He refused to start to think about the mixture of fluids that littered his body.

“You're not really Rai are you? Not Rai Kami like I know him. If that was the case Shoku would’ve called you his brother not ‘Bandages’.”

Rai, Not Rai, looked over from where he was drawing into the stone pillar by where Shinya was stationed.

“No I’m not Rai Kami, but his face is nice so I indeed will be keeping it for the near future. But I will say that the Kam family is an interesting one indeed.”

Shinya tilted his head as far as he could without wincing, but he still scrunched up his face at the punding headache. “What do you mean? They might have some odd genetics with that crazy colored hair but they're not that bad.”

Not Rai gave a laugh so hard he had to grab onto the pillar to hold himself up. “Don’t tell me you don’t know? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the Legendary Warriors. You honestly don’t even have to be one of the smart ones to use deduction. Kami means God so that should already set a red flag.”

Shinya just sees that as a last name if anything, that perfect face of Rai’s should be a crime.

“Ok, obviously that didn’t set you off. Try looking into their terrible secret identities. Rai isn’t his full name and look what I’m wearing. I'm hoping you're not that dense. Shoku that boy is a character as well, but you wouldn’t be that quick to see through his guise but he has his own secrets. Wasn’t there three more members you’ve met, try to figure it out before I’m given the order to kill you.”

Shinya could tell Not Rai was having fun with this conversation, but even with that information Shinya could do nothing as Baboongamon was still asleep and he had no knowledge of the Digital World outside of what Tommy told him.

Hold on kill-.

“Yo don’t want to kill me, Mummymon is it? You used to be a good digimon, it wouldn’t sit right with you now would it?”

Mummymon with Rai’s face gave another laugh. “Sorry _Shin-Shin_ , but a mon’s gotta eat, and if I don’t follow orders I don’t get paid.”

Shinya was going to plead his case again when Mari made her way back into the warehouse looking enraged. Which was weird because it couldn't have been lunchtime yet and she was already back.

She walked up to where Shinya was and started slapping him, knocking his head from one side to the other.

“That. Stupid. Tommy. He’s. Gonna. Regret. What. He. Did. He’ll. SEE!”

Shinya’s cheeks were stinging thoroughly and he was sure his face was puffy and marked red, this definitely isn't helping the now unbearable headache. Mari turned to Mummymon and started talking in a tight tone. “Tommy is onto us and it’s only a matter of time before we’re found! This is starting to spiral out of control. I planted the kiss that will activate _Darkness Love_ when I need it but who knew this would get this big?”

“Calm down Mari it’s almost over anyway, you’ll be _fine_ I promise.” Mummymon placed a hand on her shoulder in what Shinya guessed was a comforting gesture but the creepy smile Mummymon had was off putting.

The warehouse opened again but this time it was Shoku followed by three familiar figures.

“J.P! Izzy! Joe! What did you do to them!?”

Shoku snapped his hands as the trio made their way to stand in front of the warehouse doors. It was clear that the three were not moving of their own volition. Shoku walked over to Mari and Mummymon with a big grin attached to his face.

“Our problems will soon be solved! Those pesky Chosen and Legendary Warriors will be done with as soon as they step foot into this warehouse.”

Shoku made it a point to toss his arm toward his three newly acquired minions. Shiinya didn’t really think Izzy and Joe could put up much of a fight but he was sure J.P could take down a good amount of the Chosen by himself. He was sure that however this was gonna end it wouldn’t be well.

“Psst”

Shinya looked over to the evil trio who was discussing something in low tones.

“No, over here.”

Shinya scanned the warehouse even looking over to the college trio who was still standing gaurd in the front.

“ _No_ , in your head.”

Shinya could make out the voice and he called out mentally.

“Takuya!?”

Shinya could feel a warm sensation flood over him in comfort. He almost began to cry knowing he was this closer to getting out of this situation.

“Shinya-boy I’m sorry for leaving you. This is so embarrassing, to think I would succumb to such tactics from that harlot.”

Baboongamon was awake too? That means he could use his powers to escape. He still had to warn the others.

“Wait you guys can’t come and get me! Shoku is here and he has J.P, Izzy, and Joe under his control and Mari said she implanted something called ‘ _Darkness Love’_ in Tommy and says she can control him too! Shoku said he even set a trap. I can hold out but I can’t send you guys here knowing you would be endanger.”

He heard a howl from inside his mind. It must have been Kouji. “Why couldn’t this have been our leader the first time around?”

His brother gave a scoff. “I was a _great_ leader, don’t go implanting ideas in my little brother's head.”

Kouji readily ignored him. “Shinya we’re coming to get you, _all_ of you. No man left behind. And we can handle a trap or two, just hold on we'll be there in a jiffy.

**On The School Roof**

Tommy was pacing waiting for the last of the group to arrive. Those who didn’t go to Tskaiumi came through portals in Ken’s laptop and landed right on the roof. However, Takuya and Kouji had yet to return from the Spirit Realm.

Tommy had already received the location of the warehouse from J.P but 20 minutes later he received the same map with a location clearly marked _and_ a beauty ad with Lilithmon posing seductively. He knew J.P had a run in with the enemy but he hoped that J.P came out on top, but he couldn’t be too cautious.

Takuya and Kouji both opened their eyes and shot up.

"We need to go now!"

**3 Hours Until Lilithmon Arrives- 11:00 PM**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm thinking of doing a Mafia AU for some reason and I think I will so be watching for that.
> 
> But other than that thanks for reading and leave a comment or I'll send Not Rai Mummymon to entertain you in your sleep!
> 
> See you next time on TSDTRW.


	21. I'm Back Bitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the 20 chapter build up and 70,000 words we meet our first real life Demon Lord. Or do we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so exhausted from writing this. I was trying to make sure I didn't have any plot holes and I was using the seeds I planted earlier in the story. Please enjoy leave a comment and a Kudos if your excited for The Lust Demon Lord Lilithmon!!!

**3 Hours Before Lilithmon Arrives- 11:00 AM**

“What do you mean, Izzy and Joe are being controlled!?” Mimi cried.

“We mean Shoku Kami is controlling J.P, Izzy, and Joe. One of us will take care of J.P, the other two don’t pose a threat. Shinya told us about a trap that was set as well. Mari Yuko is there as well and might as well be just as dangerous. Tommy, in better judgement you shouldn’t go but I’m not sure anyone could stop you, Takuya will be the one to keep you under control. Lastly we have a presumed Rai Kami look alike in the warehouse as well.”

Kouji spoke to the group in a clear voice that could easily command a crowd as much as frighten it.

“If we know Tommy can be used against us should we risk it?” T.K was again the voice against union.

Tommy gave a laugh. “T.K today isn’t really the day for you to try and start something. My trigger finger is _really_ itchy.” Romeo appeared in his hand for added effect.

T.K audibly gulped.

“It’s fine T.K you’ll be in different groups anyway, this is where we take our stand against Lilithmon. Zoe is more than able to subdue Tommy anyway. Those not selected for the original mission, a.k.a the boys, will be tasked with dealing with the imposter Rai and Shoku Kami and getting J.P, Izzy, and Joe back.” Kouji wasn’t the blondes biggest fan but they are growing short on time.

Cody raised his hand. “If this is our stand against Lilithmon, are you sure we’re fully prepared? The closest thing to our medic is under control as well as our information gatherer, should they be our priority after Shinya of course?”

Kouji thought about it before answering. “Yes for the boys who are dealing with that, aim for Shoku first to gain back allies that can turn the fight.”

“Power ratio is still a problem isn't it? Lilithmon has us outmatched in class.” Ken spoke out loud.

“Not necessarily, we have four ultimates and two champions that can provide ranged support. I do like our odds and you never know how the battle can go Ken.” Tommy answered, Romeo having already disappeared from before.

Takuya has had enough of the talking. “Can we _please_ go get my brother!?”

The group got up and their protective gear equipped itself preparing for the coming fight. The Legendary Warriors didn’t hesitate to jump from the roof and into a huddle of trees nearby. The Chosen all let out their gasps but it was short lived as the Warriors appeared fine already making to leave the other group behind.

-

The Chosen finally caught up with the Warriors a block away from the school. They began to pick up their pace as they saw the Chosen join them. The group was now running down streets and making turns as Takuya was leading the charge.

After another turn they found themselves in the warehouse district. The group got together and began to split off.

Takuya spoke up. “Kouji, Koichi, Tai, Matt, T.K, and Cody you’re with me. We will have to do without Akuma since he and Oscura are still recovering.”

Tommy spoke up for his team. “Zoe, Sora, Mimi, Yolei, Kari, Ken, and Davis you’re with me. Remember this is a rescue mission first and a fight last. Once we get Shinya, we fall back and regroup, and then we go from there.Koichi and I will go in to assess the building and report back.”

Everyone nodded understanding the plan.

Koichi stepped over to Tommy placing his hand on his shoulder, the duo disappearing into the shadows. Tommy and Koichi reappeared on top of the rafters in a dark corner of the warehouse. They made their way to the otherside to get a better look at who was in the warehouse.

J.P along with Izzy and Joe were placed in front of the front doors of the warehouse ready to attack. Going deeper in the warehouse A group consisting of Mari, Shoku, and Rai with the hand of a Mummymon were discussing something.

Shinya wa-

Tommy felt his grip on the railing tightened and the temperature drop drastically. He hears Mari make a comment about it. “Why did I pick such a cold warehouse?”

Tommy jumped over the railing ready to go in guns blazing but he fell face first into the ground, outside. The group gave a gasp at the sudden reappearance of the two. Tommy got up and whirled on Koichi.

“What are you doing!?” Tommy was in his face eager for a fight.

“Making sure you follow your own place.” Koichi didn’t flinch and just turned to the group.

“The warehouse isn’t lined with traps, so the trap must be J.P standing at the door ready to attack that way. Our enemies are Mummymon, and Shoku but I’m not sure what kind of digimon he could be but he’s definitely not human. The breaching is nearing and Mari is looking worse for wear so we have to hurry.”

“Kouji and Koichi you deal with J.P, the rest should be focusing on Shoku. Those staying in the warehouse are dealing with a Mummymon and whatever Mari might have up her sleeve.”

Kouji and Koichi went around the front of the warehouse preparing to start the battle. The twins shared a glance with each other before taking a deep breath and bumping fists.

Kouji dug deep for the light within himself, he found the sources of light in the warehouse and overheated them first causing the inside to be cast in blinding light then vast darkness. Koichi used the darkness to be able to take a hold of the college trio taking them out of the warehouse and into a space by some shipping crates. Shoku came running out to combat the intruders. Koichi and Kouji both landed kicks sending him in the direction of the shipping crates.

“Now!”

Those in Team Takuya gathered by the shipping crates as Team Tommy ran into the warehouse.

**EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION**

“ **Agunimon!** "

“ **KendoGarurumon!** ”

“ **Lowemon**!”

“ **Agumon digivolve to Greymon!** ”

“ **Gabumon digivolve to Garurumon!** ”

“ **Patamon digivolve to Angemon!** ”

“ **Armadillomon digivolve to Ankylomon!** ”

“ **Angemon and Ankylomon DNA digivolve to Shakkoumon!** ”

-

**2 Hours Before Lilithmon Arrives- 12:00 PM**

-

In the warehouse the group of eight and those with partner digimon entered with their guards up. Tommy already had Romeo in one hand and Zoe had her fans. The only light illuminating the warehouse was the light made from the opening of the door. Zoe swiped her fans cutting open pieces of the roof letting the warehouse be flooded with light again.

Mari was in a crouching position muttering to herself and Mummymon was standing over the bloodied Shinya. Tommy had enough of it and dash over to Mummymon cocking his gun back and slamming Mummymon into the nearest set of crates. This brought Mari out of her panic and to the group that now filled up the warehouse.

“What are you people doing here!? Is that Kari Yagami?” Mari stood up fully seeming to have calmed down. Kari wouldn't look at Mari

“We’re here to get Shinya back! What have you done to him!?” Zoe was beyond furious the winds surrounding her implying such.

“Oh I didn’t do anything, that was all him.” She pointed to the Mummymon who was getting up from the box of crates he was thrown into. He had a couple of scratches that were leaking data, he ran a hand over the wounds which closed them stopping the leakage.

“I just know I better get my money for this job.” Mummymon lifted his gun deflecting an attack from Tommy.

Davis and Ken ran over to Shinya untying him and bringing him over to Sora and Mimi so they could watch him as he was still unconscious.

“Um Mummymon, they just took Kanbara. You only get paid if I have Shinya Kanbara in my possession!”

Mummymon jumped back, sending a round of bullets Tommy’s way, who sent up a shield of ice as he deflected the bullets. He stood by Mari as he reached into his bandages pulling out two digicores.

“It’s a good thing I always have digicores on hand then, ‘ **Necrophobia!** ’.”

The digicores began to darken and grow in size and taking shape, They stood no taller than anyone in the room being short in stature. Both were holding staffs which they slammed on the ground dispelling the dark aura around them revealing the familiar digimon.

Kari reached out a hand while another covered her mouth. “Wizarmon?” Gatomon as well had a look of fondness on her face.

Zoe’s reaction was quite the opposite. She swiped her fan shooting a compressed blade of wind cutting down the Sorcerymon. “These are not digimon you know, control yourselves. They are just another enemy standing in our way.”

Zoe didn’t need to turn around to see the various looks she was getting. Most consisted of anger and disbelief. She didn’t have the time nor did she care. They’re in a battle that is either delete or die. Mimi was clenching her fist.

“That’s not true! All life is precious, each digimon is its own being who has its own thoughts and feelings. We can’t just take away lives because it’s easier for us.”

Zoe tried not to but she had to give a chuckle. “That sort of thinking will get you killed, and quickly might I add. So you don’t delete a digimon, then what? What if they come back and take out one of us, now we lost a friend instead of an enemy. You’ll just have to learn how to deal with it.”

Zoe raised her fans again to deal with the Wizarmon when Mimi jumped in front of her with her arms raised. “No! I won’t let you cut down an innocent digimon!” 

The tag around her neck began to glow bright.

“Do you remember what I told you, Mimi? Sincerity is a hard thing to maintain in the time of war.” Zoe pointed her fan at the Wizarmon. Thanks to Mimi’s interference, Wizarmon began to absorb the data from the defeated Sorcerymon making him stronger and filling the room with the light of digivolution.

**Wizarmon digivolve to Mystimon!**

“Dammit Mimi! This is what happens when you try to keep your stupid ideals!” Zoe pushed Mimi to the side, her crest dimming, calling forth her fractal code.

Across the warehouse Mummymon landed a hit on Tommy causing him to raise his fractal code as well.

**EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION**

“ **Kazemon**!”

“ **Kumamon**!”

Kazemon met Mystimon’s downward swing with a kick, as Kumamon met Mummymon’s barrage of bullets with ice crystals.

-

**Outside The Warehouse**

Shoku was dodging Agunimon’s “ **Pyro Darts** ” with a special type of elegance. It was almost as if he was floating around the battlefield. 

“What is this all about Shoku? What’s your deal?” Agunimon questioned.

Shoku gave a harmonious laugh. “It’s interesting really, I hate what the Digital World has become. I always open my arms to _all_ digimon but then my services are questioned and I am betrayed by a mon I let in. It makes you want to rage a bit doesn't it?”

Shoku took in a deep breath belting out a high tenor note taking the shape of musical notes. They shot out across the battlefield each hitting a target never missing, “ **Canon No.3!** ”

Agunimon blocked the dart with a punch to the ground creating a fire wall. He jumped forward twisting in the air landing a downwards kick, “ **Blaze Shoot!** ”

A scream came from behind the two as Greymon and Garurumon were hit causing them to dedigivolve back into Agumon and Gabumon flying into Tentomon and Gomamon.

“Are you guys ok, you look a little out of it?” Gomamon waving a paw in front of Agumon and Gabumon.

“Just a little dizzy. Does anybody else see the musical notes flying around?” Gabumon points to the sky.

“No buzz. Just get some rest buzz. I wish Izzy would snap out of it, buzz.” Tentomon was flying in place with worry.

Tai and Matt were both trying to detain Izzy and Joe without hurting them. Izzy and Joe were showing better physical capabilities than you would guess from how they held themselves. Izzy and Joe both were on the offensive actually landing hits on both Tai and Matt. 

“Snap out of it you guys, we don’t want to hurt you!”

Izyy and Joe didn’t share the same sentiments as they jumped back and picked up pipes that were scattered around after a crate busted open. Izzy went for Tai, wildly swinging the makeshift weapon. Tai was dodging the strikes but he himself was starting to tire out. Luckily Cody jumped in with his own pipe using his kendo skills to disarm Izzy with ease. Tai used the opening to rush forward letting Izzy hit him in the shoulder but Tai still tackled the boy and pinned him on the ground.

Joe had a longer pipe and was using it as a bow staff. He was winding the makeshift staff inching closer to Matt who was looking for an opening. Joe brought the staff down with Matt having to block it with his forearms. The protective gear broke the staff in half due to being much stronger than regular steel. Matt used that gap in movement to pin Joe down.

J.P wasn’t going down that easily.

KendoGarurumon was zipping around the controlled J.P trying to cut him with it’s metal wings, “ **Howling Star!** ”. J.P simply had a flow of electricity around him that took the brunt of the attacks moving with the blades redirecting them away. Lowemon was offering ranged support from atop of a shipping crate. He was gathering dark energy in his chest, he released the gathered energy in the form of a wave of golden energy, “ **Shadow Meteor**!”.

At the time Lowemon shot his blast KendoGarurumon tried to perform another ‘Howling Star’, but this time J.P took the the brunt of the attack slicing his hands but he grabbed ahold of a bladed wing and threw KendoGarurumon into the incoming blast, causing him to revert to Kouji.

“KendoGarurumon!” Lowemon jumped down the crate running to hiss Warrior opposite.

J.P wasn’t done as he brought his hand up slowly calling forth his fractal code which had more rings than before.

“Takuya, you need to get rid of Shoku now! J.P is going beast!” Lowemon was reaching for his ring but Kouji grabbed his wrist tight.

“Don’t. I can still fight!” Kouji struggled to bring himself up to his feet but he mirrored J.P anyway. His fractal code was few in rings and slightly faded. Lilithmon drawing nearer is messing with the balance more than they could have predicted.

“ **Execute Spirit Evolution** ”

“ **EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION** ”

“ **MetalKabuterimon**.”

“ **Lobomon**!”

-

**1 Hour Until Lilithmon Arrives- 1:00**

-

“ **Core Dart!** ” A flameball produced by Mystimon in its crystal ball that shoots toward Kazemon.

“ **Hurricane Wave!** ” Streams of winds that blast from Kazemon’s fingers to block the flames.

The two attacks meeted in the middle which caused a mini fire tornado to form in the middle of the warehouse turned battlefield. Mystimon used the fire tornado to strengthen his next attack that brought the fight to close quarters. Mystimon set his blade on fire using the for tornado to increase the amount and intensity of the flames, “ **Blast Fire!** ”.

Kazemon raised her hands to block the attack but the added flames were too much for her blasting her back over the head of the Chosen and into the steel walls of the warehouse. She can feel the ache in her bones as she slides down on the ground. She raises her hand blowing a strong gust to keep Mystimon away from the Chosen.

“You guys need to buy me time, I’m gonna end this while we still have time.”

The Chosen were still reeling from Zoe’s earlier ideals of how battles should go but they needed to protect all of the Digital World’s inhabitants, which included the Warriors. The Chosen raised their digivices as the lights of digivolution filled the warehouse once more.

**Palmon digivolve to Togemon**

**Biyomon digivolve to Birdramon**

**XV-mon and Stingmon DNA digivolve to Paildramon**

**Gatomon and Aquilamon DNA digivolve to Silphymon**

-

On the other side of the warehouse Kumamon and Mummymon were locked in their own battle. Kumamon was skiing around Mummymon so that he couldn’t lock onto him and get a shot in.

“You’re not so much fun to play with like **Shin-Shin**. You move too much, and he was so much more vocal than you.”

Kumamon started to see red and changed course charging right at Mummymon, who gained a smirk. He raised his ‘Obelisk’ and charged up a blast. Kumamon simply pushed his form apart and the shot went right through him. Kumamon brought his skis together in a V-shape and performed a drop kick, “ **V Jump Attack** ”.

Mummymon was pushed back but he did a one handed back handspring to regain his footing, continuing to taunt him. “Oh but you are more honest then _Shin-Shin_ , you let your true feelings show without hesitation. I had to persuade him to make his first sweet sound.” Mummymon was full blown laughing as he was relishing in the memory.

Kumamon has had enough.

“ **Kumamon Slide Evolution!** ”

“ **Korikakumon!** ”

Korikakumon’s braids were flailing wildly, an exact replica of QueenChessmon before. He let out a beastly roar shaking the very foundation of the warehouse. 

“ **FROZEN ARROWHEADS!** ”

His brains shot out and grabbed a hold of Mummymon, almost bursting the digimon into bits of data at the sheer grip of all the braids not to mention the slow stabbing of the arrowheads on the ends. Mummymon was screaming out pleas to be let go, to have mercy. They seem to reach Korikakumon’s ears as he is dropped gently on the ground.

“ **Avalanche Throw**.”

Korikakumon threw his axes at Mummymon pinning him to the wall as he was caught by his bandages and he called the twin axes back. Mummymon tried to escape but Korikakumon’s axes froze the bandages in place, not allowing for movement. Mummymon was pleaing again.

“You don’t want to do this! It’s the girl you want! She ordered me to do all this! Get close to Shinya Kanbara. Gain his trust. Kill him! IF i didn’t do what she said I would face the consequences!” Mummymon was flailing around trying to get out of the hold.

Korikakumon let out a growl, “Shifting blame now? It won’t save you, but I’ll humor you. What can that human girl do to you, Necromancer?”

Mummymon had fear in his eyes as Korikakumon was inches from his face.

“You don’t understand. I’m not afraid of the girl, I’m afraid of _Lilithmon_! She’s behind everything! She wants a vessel and she’s gonna use the girl. The fact that she was a psycho on the side was just a bonus no one accounted for! See I gave you valuable information right!? You should let me go, I’ll get out of your hair for good, I’ll be a good mon. I promise!”

Korikakumon gave a grunt, waved a hand and the ice was gone. Mummymon couldn’t scramble away fast enough, stumbling and falling repeatedly as he headed for the door. The Chosen seemed to brighten at the show of mercy in the Warrior of Ice.

He was 50 feet from the door passing the Mystimon he created.

A yard from the door he could see the light even though the skies were darkening.

10 feet he was almost pass those stupid Chosen and good redence to them.

Until he wasn’t. He felt a sharp pain in his spine, or what was left of it

Mummymon crumbled to the ground with an axe in his back, the gash spraying data everywhere.

Korikakumon spoke in a calm voice. “None of that information was new to me. I just let you ramble, your fate was sealed the second I saw what you did to Shinya _, my Shinya_.”

The large digimon was wrapped in fractal code as his shape was back to the normal Tommy Himi. He called back the axe still embedded in Mummymon. He walked over the Mystimon disappearing with its creator. He was standing over Mummymon with a blank expression.

“I would purify you but that would be a waste as you chose your own path in life. Guess you could call it destiny.” Tommy watched as the data dispersed. He was knocked on the head by an irritated Zoe.

“Wow, Tommy. Leave some for the rest of us. I was preparing to go Beast Spirit, but you just had to go bananas.” Tommy rubbed the back of his head as he looked over to Shinya who was resting on Sora’s lap and was unharmed.

As if he knew eyes were on him the boy began to awaken.

“What I miss?”

-

**30 Minutes Till Lilithmon Arrives- 1:30**

-

MetalKabuterimon was launching blast all over the crate lot, not really aiming for anything. Lobomon was breathing heavily already exhausted from dodging the blast so far. Takuya went up a level to BurningGreymon but Shoku was still giving the Warrior of Fire a hard time. 

Lobomon turned to his twin and gave him a nod, hopefully J.P would forgive him and his twin. Using the various debris and craters in the ground Lobomon and Lowemon began to inch closer to the Beast digimon. It was a little tougher due to the imbalance of Light and Darkness for Lobomon to keep up his strength. It didn't help that it was only around half past one o’clock but the sky was darkening in an ominous way.

He could feel his powers waning and himself weakening but he could only hope, no his power will be enough.

It had to be.

The twins were still dodging inching closer until they were in a range where they couldn’t miss this all out attack. He felt himself gathering power from every possible light source and from his very core to power this attack.

-

Kari fell to her knees holding onto Yolei for support. Davis ran to help his friend. “Kari, what’s wrong?”

Kari brought out her Crest which was glowing brightly and dimmed suddenly. Silphymon unfused and Gatomon began to glow but it wasn’t a digivolution it was the opposite she shrunk in size devolving into Nyaromon.

“Kouji must be asking for power.” Zoe looked outside to the crate lot.

-

Lowemon jumped toward MetalKabuterimon and Lobomon joined his twin in the opposite direction.

“ **CHAOS FIELD!** ”

MetalKabuterimon was engulfed in a checkered sphere of black and white squares. He gave a mechanical groan and the sphere shrunk into a J.P shaped size then dispersed, leaving an unconscious J.P in a small crater.

Over by BurningGreymon and Shoku the battle was still raging Shoku sent song notes and BurningGreymon well, burning them. Shoku noticed that his mind controlled minions were detained and came to a stop.

“Well this was nice and fun, but it’s time I get going.” Shoku looked up to the sky and the dark clouds. “Yeah I didn’t sign up to stay till the end of the party when our main guest arrives. I’ll be seeing you around school hopefully!”

Shoku gave a wave and disappeared, being swallowed by the ground.

BurningGreymon dedigivolved back kinto Takuya. He ran over to Koichi and Kouji who were standing over J.P.

“Is he ok?” Takuya poked his friend.

“He’s spirit is still pulsing. He seems to just be resting.”

“And Izzy and Joe?” The trio turned to the Chosen who had their partners jumping on them.

“Wow, Joe I didn’t know you could move like that!” 

“Well Gomamon, I can’t just be the medic all the time I need to learn other stuff too.”

“I’m so glad your safe buzz. You had me worried buzz.”

“You shouldn’t be Tentomon. I was wearing my protective gear, and Tai and Cody didn’t hurt me at all.”

Then the scream came from the warehouse.

-

**15 minutes Until Lilithmon Arrives- 1:45**

-

“No! This can’t be all falling apart what even are you freaks!? You’re monsters, literal monsters, and the rest are, what? Your friends, ew. You’re a bunch of weirdos!”

Mari was ranting and freaking out at the whole situation. She stopped however smiling to herself.

“It’s okay I still have the _Darkness Love_ I can use on Tommy!”

The Chosen and Warriors weren’t entirely sure if Mari knew she was talking out loud or not. It didn’t matter as she focused on Tommy and snapped her fingers.

Tommy’s head snapped down and rose again, his eyes unfocused. A mark the shape of a kiss in a dark color was on his cheek where Mari kissed him earlier.

“Tommy come to me and bring your _friend_.” Mari shouted from the middle of the warehouse.

Tommy started to robotically move to pick up Shinya. Zoe stepped in front of him, “Tommy s-”

Romeo shot an ice blast sending the girl flying. In case the others had any ideas, he shot five more shots at the other Chosen sending them to the ground. He went over to Sora picking up Shinya gently, carrying his bridal style to Mari. Shinya was squirming in his grasp trying to get away from his best friend.

“Tommy! Snap out of it! I know your stronger than her!” Shinya was hitting the Warrior of Ice, but his body just hurt too much from the early torture from Mummymon.

-

**5 minutes**

-

Tommy placed Shinya up gently on a chair of ice he created for him, Shinya shouldn’t be sitting on this dirty floor, not all cut up like he was. Tommy turned toward Mari looking for his next order.

“Good, not what should I do with him?” Mari was panting heavily, sweat was forming on her face. She began to unbuckle her uniform to find some relief.

“I want him gone so there would be no competition for Tommy. Yes that sounds right.”

-

**2 minutes**

-

“Tommy why don’t you do the honors, this being your good friend and all, sound very _poetic_. This is you showing your new found love for me!” Mari was laughing even though it was strained and she was clutching at her chest.

Tommy raised Romeo to Shinya’s temple. Shinya didn’t flinch or move however.

“He won’t do it.”

-

**1 minute**

-

“DO IT!”

“Tommy I know you won’t.”

The gun began to shake.

-

**40 seconds**

-

The gun fell to Tommy’s side.

Shinya had a look of relief.

-

**20 seconds**

-

“Fine I will!”

-

**10 seconds**

-

Tommy turned toward Mari raising his gun.

-

**8 seconds**

-

Shinya willed a wall of stone.

-

**3 seconds**

-

Mari leaped forward and her form began to glow a bright green engulfing the three.

The team from outside ran inside the warehouse.

-

**2 seconds**

-

Takuya let out a heart wrenching cry.

Tommy fell to his knees.

“ **Nazar Nail!** ”

-

**1 second**

-

Shinya looked down and saw the nail impaling himself. 

He coughed up blood.

-

**Lilithmon has arrived.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oopsie I did a bad thing. Please don't hate me, i don't want to lose readers. Thank you for reading TSDTRW and stay tune for our poor boy Shin-Shin.


	22. 3 Times We See Him ***

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The after math

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This feels lack luster compare to the previous chapter but the next will be jam packed, but in a good way. As always leave a comment and/or a kudos for this chapter and thank you for reading TSDTRW!!

Shinya saw Mari rush toward him. He powered through the pain and willed some sort of defense, that wish resorted in a stone wall shooting up. He remembers the light green glow filling his sight even after the wall was blocking him. He saw as the stone was penetrated by the dark purple hued golden claw.

“ **Nazar Nail!** ”

Oh it was an attack, but Mari wasn’t a digimon. Oh. This was Lilithmon, wow his first big mission as a Legendary Warrior and he’s going to die. Isn’t his life supposed to be flashing before his eyes right about now?

He thought back to when he was younger and Takuya was his amazing big brother. He still is of course but back then it was borderline hero worship. Whatever Takuya did, he wanted to do to impress his brother.

His mind jumped to the time he made his brother angry after messing up his game system. His brother went out because he didn’t want to ever hurt his younger brother, but then he got into a fight that landed him in the hospital. Shinya felt  _ horrible _ , he never wanted to see anyone he cared about hurt again if he had a say in it.

He jumped forward to when his brother introduced him to one Tomoki Himi. They instantly connected, becoming fast friends. It was later that his brother told him this was odd as Tommy didn’t open up easily outside of a select group of people, which was rather small. Shinya felt a feeling rise in his stomach at that moment. Tommy thought he was special enough for him to open up right away?

Shinya saw the differences in treatment as time went on, things Shinya could do, others couldn’t. Shinya and Tommy soon became each other's support systems. Tommy would tell him about how his brother Yutaka was being mean and Shinya would play a video game with him till Tommy felt better. Or Shinya would spend his time over at Tommy’s house when he would have a fight with his parents.

Of course Shinya had other friends but Tommy just meant so much more to him, Tommy was the missing piece in his puzzle that he didn’t know he needed. For Shinya, their relationship was something he didn’t want to lose. 

At some point he gained feelings for his best friend.

And then he found out about the Digital World. He was so excited that he could share this with Tommy as well and his brother too. He got to meet new people and his partner spirit Baboongamon, and even though he’s a bit rough around the edges, he’s a nice guy or primate. Then he meets Rai Kami and he doesn't know how much of that was real but it was nice, hopefully his new friend doesn't miss him too much.

The metaphorical tape reel ends and he looks down to find the golden claw has now found a home in his stomach. He spares a glance at Tommy, who has fallen to his knees in despair, as he raises Romeo in an attempt to do something. He also hears a cry that sounds oddly familiar, like his brother. Shinya feels the blood rise up and he coughs the blood up and the last thing he remembers is the intense feeling of both coldness and heat before blacking out.

-

The knob to the door was jangling, trying to open itself. Kumamon and Korikakumon stood before it with looks of uncertainty.

“Is he ready for that, are  _ we  _ ready for _that_?” Kumamon was hiding behind Korikakumon peeking his head out to look at the door covered with sharp icicles.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice. The best we can do is try to control him,  _ if  _ that’s possible in these circumstances.”

Kumamon swallowed the lump in his throat. “Maybe today is the day Takuya decides to be level headed and rational.”

Korikakumon reached for the door opening it. Light flooded from the opened door sucking both digimon in and closing abruptly.

-

Tommy just watched his best friend, and a person he might have feelings for, get stabbed. He  _ promised _ himself, Shinya,  _ and _ his brother he would let Shinya get hurt and here they were.

Oh god, Takuya. The utter cry of despair reached his ears causing him to be able to move again. He raised Romeo and shot at Lilithmon. She took the claw out and began to cackle.

“Oh wow, this feels good! He had some lust in him, lust for someone.” She raised the blood covered claw to her mouth. She licked at the crimson red liquid, a moan escaping her lips. She gained a wicked smile that sent chills down spines.

“Who’s next?”

Tommy let out a war cry as he summoned his axe and began to swing it in wild abandon. “You bitch!”. Swing. “How dare you!”. Swing. “I’ll kill you!”. Tommy could feel his body growing colder as he could only see red as he gained a new bloodlust. Lilithmon simply yawned as she easily dodged the swings.

“Let me take over and I can give you the power you seek” A new voice is in his mind. He didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t Kumamon or Korikakumon.

Tommy’s rage was growing with every passing action. Tommy could feel ice start to creep up his limbs and it hurt. It shouldn't, but it hurt  _ sooo  _ bad, but that didn’t matter. He let Shinya get hurt so he had no right to complain or be in a state of peace. Not as long as Lilithmon was still standing.

“Let go and let me take over.” The voice said again.

He called upon his fractal code but the rings were covered in sharp ice crystals. He could tell that his rings weren’t in the correct state but that didn’t matter; he needed more power. Was it tied to his emotions that were kinda spiralling out of control right now?

“It is inevitable you called for me, now let me out!” The voice was starting to get agitated.

The ice continued to take a hold of him racing up his body, already up to his neck. He didn’t stop his assault however as he jumped forward slashing overhead down on Lilithmon. She simply yawned as she blocked the attack with her golden claw.

“Please you’ll have to be better than that to even land a hit on me, not that it would do anything.” Lilithmon gave a light push and Tommy flew back into the doors. He was caught by some warm hands, probably Takuya.

Wait.

Why isn’t he helping him destroy Lilithmon right now?

He forced himself out of the grasp and ran back over to the mega digimon. The ice now covers his whole body, his hair turning white.

“Tomoki Himi, Warrior of Ice, Strategist. Let your emotions run free, go bezerk and let’s get rid of the one who stole the Warrior of Earth from us!”

He lets out a cry and he swipes his fractal code, which is now just rings of ice zipping around his hand. He feels the surrounding area become encompassed in the tundra that he summons just by existing. It was so strong even Lilithmon had to raise her hands in some sort of defense.

He can’t tell what this form is exactly. He is entirely armored this time around which is new to him. He has claws made of the pure ice crystals and…, are those wings? He had a tail he knew because it was whipping around ferociously. He did remember that the forms they took on were merely the representation of the fusing of the spirit and whoever is using its power.

“I want her obliterated.” Tommy felt his consciousness slipping.

“Good choice Tommy.”

A roar filled the space of the warehouse.

-

Takuya heard Zoe’s voice from inside the warehouse.

“Tommy!” Her plea was cut off then followed by a long bang, that wasn’t very good. Something was wrong with Zoe and possibly Tommy, hopefully they already got Shinya back and they could hurry up and go.

With the mind control no longer affecting them Izzy and Joe were helping carry J.P who was knocked unconscious. The group rushed their way to the warehouse in urgency. Takuya was truly unprepared for what he was walking into. He didn’t really process what was going on, he just felt the need to release this foregin feeling.

He cried out to his brother who was now being impaled in the stomach with a golden claw. He knew this would happen, he feared this from the very beginning. He  _ told _ Tommy this would be the outcome and yet he didn’t feel the need to rage. He was the natural hothead, Agunimon and BurningGreymon both were silent and the three of them were always on the same page.

“Takuya, go to him.” Agunimon said calmly.

Takuya didn’t move, he was stuck in place staring at his younger brother, or is it former? There was no way he would survive that, even with their enhanced abilities.

“Takuya get up and move!” BurningGreymon roared at his partner.

For the first time in a long time Takuya was doubting himself. What could he do? Their powers weren’t at their fullest and there was never a reason for it. Were him and his spirits not on the same wavelength anymore?

“Takuya!” Both spirits yelled in unison.

Takuya snapped his head up to notice that Tommy was raging on Lilithmon, but a concerning layer of ice was beginning to cover the boy. He went back to looking at his brother to notice he was gone. He started looking frantically for him only to have a hand placed on his shoulder.

“Takuya, we got Shinya, J.P, and Zoe to the hospital where Rai is. Everyone else is already gone, we need to get Tommy and go!” Koichi had a pained look in his eyes. 

Takuya looked around and indeed no one but Koichi and Takuya remained and gave a nod. It seems it would be a quick escape as Tommy was flying in their direction. Takuya caught the boy, but he had to add some heat behind his touch so he didn’t get frostbite.

“Tommy, come one we need to go!”

His plea fell on deaf ears as Tommy just wrestled himself out of the grip, the ice crawling up his figure rapidly. Takuya saw Tommy raise his hand calling forth his fractal code.

No. Tommy can’t seriously be thinking of taking on Lilithmon by himself? He had to stop him. Tommy’s fractal code was different than normal, it was covered in ice crystals. Could his emotions be fueling something else than a regular evolution?

Tommy swiped the fractal code and immediately the area was encompassed in a frozen tundra. Takuya felt his body heat up to combat the now freezing temperatures of the warehouse. The tundra wasn't the only problem, was that a blizzard? No, wait, its exhaust from wings? Ice crystal wings attached to a…

Dragon!?

“Hey, that’s my thing!”

-

“Oh, this is new. An ice dragon man digimon? Well aren’t you mister big man, Tommy was it?” Lilithmon brought her claw to her chin in thought.

“Tommy’s checked out right now vixen. But it’s ok because he’s unknowingly cashed in a favor from a long time ago. You Demon Lords are nothing more than a plague that needs to be eradicated.” The newly formed digimon raised both it’s claws in preparation.

“ **Frozen Claw!** ”

The bipedal armored ice dragon jumped forward swiping at the Demon Lord of Lust. She raised her claw blocking the attack but it did chip a bit off of the top. Lilithmon jumped back hissing. The claw began to freeze over.

“Who are you to be able to hurt me?” Lilithmon was gathering energy to plan her escape, as she still had plans she needed to carry out.

“Just know Witchenly gives it’s regards.” The ice dragon gave a roar.

“ **Callous Dimension!** ” A snow squall egan to form, attacking Lilithmon, but she was prepared.

“ **Phantom Pain!** ” She raised her hand, her magic circle with her crown in the middle spewing forth darkness to counter the snow squall.

The attacks collided turning the warehouse into a dual sided snowstorm and blanket of darkness. Both attacks began to flutter out, with their respective digimon breathing heavily.

Lilithmon gave a click of her tongue. “I spent too much energy getting through into this dimension. I need to recharge my energy before I try to do anything else.

The ice dragon digimon had the same problem. “It seems my host is drained and can’t hold this form for too much longer, he’s  _ weak _ , but I’ll fix it.”

The ice dragon digimon raised his claw directed at Lilithmon. “The next time we meet, it’ll be the last time you draw a breath.”

The ice dragon digimon fell back, his form dissolving, returning Tommy to his human form which was unconscious on the ground. Koichi came and collected Tommy from the ground returning back by Takuya’s side. The duo gave one last look at Lilithmon before being transported to the hospital.

This was going to be a long day and he wasn't sure his flame will be able to last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always leave a comment and/or a kudos for this chapter and thank you for reading TSDTRW!! Next time we go back to the hospital and we see some conversations take place.


	23. Hospital Woes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hospital stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So DA we just act like I'm not updating 2 weeks late? School sports and I just moved my brother into college kinda left me tired. Thanks for reading TSDTRW Leave a commnet and/or Kudos.

Baboongamon was swimming in a void. He could feel his grasp onto Shinya starting to fade. The storm of emotions that were in his partner's brain were just, _gone_. Baboongamon was no stranger to death, but Shinya couldn’t have died, the mental scape would’ve disappeared.

Shinya must still be holding on!

Wait if Baboongamon is still here than that means so are the other Spirit of Earth. He thought about the self-isolating crystal. He wouldn’t be happy, not one bit. Even though he felt that he was too shiny for the world to see, he still _wanted_ to be seen.

Baboongamon arrived at a pedestal made of stone. There laid Shinya who appeared to be fading in and out with the rhythm of a heart beat. But he was starting to fade out more than in. Baboongamon started to reach for Shinya before a voice called out to him.

“Don’t!” A high pitched voice cried.

Baboongamon whirled around to be faced with Gogmamon, the Earth Beast Spirit. He was made of both rocks and crystals, with crystals being the upper half and rocks the lower. Although his crystals were lacking luster as they are normally sparking brightly. He was also _much_ smaller in size, seeing as he usually towered over Baboongamon.

“Gogmamon.”

“The boy sucked all my energy when I touched him! How dare he, he isn’t nearly sparkling enough to be using my power yet!” Gogmamon lifted his tiny nose in the air. Baboongamon simply picked up the now tiny Beast Spirit.

“Well Gogmamon if he’s dead he’ll never get a chance to sparkle like you want him too.” Gogmamon climbed up onto Baboongamon’s horn holding onto it.

“He was starting to pique my interest and then he goes and gets himself stabbed. The Warrior of Earth is known for having strong defenses. There should be _no_ weapon that can penetrate our skin. He will be receiving harsh training when he wakes up.”

Baboongamon didn’t comment on the fact that Gogmamon said ‘when’ instead of ‘if’. Baboongamon knew what he had to do. Shinya had so much more he had to do and as long as Baboongamon had a say in it Shinya wasn’t going anywhere. He reached for Shinya slowly lowering his hand to his head.

Baboongamon blacked out instantly.

-

Shinya heard the noises of machines, the kind that you would find in the hospital. How did he get to a hospital? Wasn’t he in the warehouse and….

Oh God.

Shinya jolted up in his hospital bed scaring the person laying their head on his bed. It was Takuya, who looked hollow. His eyes were sunken in with deep bags under his eyes. He had a bad case of bed head and he was wearing the same clothes that he was when they stormed the warehouse.

He looked like a sad, pitiful, imation of his big brother.

“Shinya!?” Takuya gained some light back in his eyes as he tackled his younger brother forgetting he was still injured. Shinya gave a sharp hiss at the action.

“Takuya calm down. I’m okay!”

Takuya let go quickly fearing he hurt his brother more than he already was. “I’m sorry it’s just been…”

Shinya heard the reluctance to finish his sentence

“How long have I’ve been out? How did I get here? Does Mom and Dad know? And why can’t I hear Baboongamon, where is he?” Shinya started to hyperventilate as he was stricken with worry.

“Shinya calm down, I’m here. Everything is ok.” Takuya took his younger brother's hand and placed it on his chest. “You feel my heartbeat?”

Shinya nodded.

“Try to match your breathing with it. Steady breathes in and out.”

Shinya did as he was told and he could feel himself calming down. He still had his questions but they weren’t taking up that much of his mind. The pain in his abdomen pulsed again. He raised up his hospital gown to see that the stab wound was nearly the size of a golf ball.

“What…”

Takuya gave a small laugh. “Another perk of being a Warrior. We have accelerated healing but that only applies to minor wounds and anything non lethal. We guessed that you had major help from your spirits since a wound that larger would take a lot of energy. That’s probably why you can’t hear Baboongamon he might be exhausted from giving you energy.”

Shiny nodded his head. “What about everyone else? Where’s Tommy?”

Takuya gained a steely look. “He’s gone. When we brought him back to the hospital…”

Shinya covered his mouth. He didn’t want to even consider the possibility. “No...”

Takuya continued. “He got up and left.”

Shinya paused. At least he wasn’t dead. “He got up and _left_?”

“He said he had business to take care of and _left_. I don’t know what he’s doing, we’ve been trying to track him down, but I know it has to do with his guilt.”

Shinya just stared openly at his brother. Guilt. Why did Tommy feel guilty? He didn’t do anything wrong, at least of his own volition. And Shinya sure as hell didn’t blame him, he had a bone to pick with Lilithmon. He just hoped wherever he was , Tommy was ok.

“He shouldn’t feel guilty.” Shinya meant the words but they come out soft and quiet. Takuya wasn’t convinced.

“He swore that he would protect you. You were his _responsibility_ , did you forget about that!? Because I sure as hell didn’t, _this_ ,”

Takuya waved his arm behind him in an arch motioning to the hospital they were currently residing in.

“Was exactly what I didn’t want to happen, what I _feared_ would happen. I know this might be fun for you, you get to meet my friends and grow your inner circle, but this kinda thing happens _a lot_ in our line of work. Tommy knows this and yet he thought he could keep you safe. It was my fault for trusting him, I _never_ wanted you to find out.”

Shinya jerked back a bit by the confession, he didn’t know his brother felt that way about the situation. “Takuya you can’t mean that. You were just going to hide this part of you away forever?”

“Shinya, death was so frequent that it was just another daily occurrence. There is no avoiding it, everytime we step foot onto the battlefield there is a chance we die. This isn’t a game. There are no do overs, no save files, so retries, just _death_ . Hell when we finally beat Lucemon, Koichi was dead, medically dead. If not for the literal miracle that came out of nowhere he would be dead. I will always protect the Digital World, it was what _we_ were chosen for, you weren’t. And you shouldn’t have been.”

Shinya was clenching his fists. He _was_ chosen, Ophanimon said so. Even if his brother didn’t like that, what was he gonna do? Take his spirits away?

“Takuya-”

The door opened with a creak, the brothers turned to meet the visitor. A head with bi-colored head peeked into the room.

“Rai?” Takuya asked as the boy stepped fully into the room.

Rai raised a hand in an attempt to say hello, but it was quickly pinned to the wall. Rai let out a grunt in surprise. Takuya snapped back at his younger brother who was seething.

“What’s wrong Shin-Shin, why am I being pinned down by a piece of the floor.” Rai was surprisingly calm about the situation.

Sure enough Takuya looked down and a piece of the room’s floor was missing. Luckily, no pipes or anything important was damaged. Takuya was sure that the amount of damage would cost a lot of money.

“What are you doing here!?” Shinya all but screamed at Rai.

“I came to see my frien-.” 

The restraint tightened, but again Rai made no motion of pain or even discomfort. He let out a sigh.

“Shinya I know that it might be shocking seeing me-” Rai tried to reach out his other hand to bring down the hostility but again another piece of the floor flew violently toward Rai pinning his other arm.

“Shocking to see you!? I spent _hours_ looking at your face, and quite frankly I’ve had enough of it. I had to look at someone I thought of as my friend while being tortured for hours. Do you know what it feels like to have your body being a play thing for a sadistic bastard who had all intentions to kill you? Always bringing me to the point of passing out then stopping as he got off on my screams?” At this point Shinya knew he had tears running down his eyes, and he didn’t care. He stopped his rant as he couldn’t continue without his mind trying to relive the experience even with his body healed.

Shinya could see his brother fuming once again. A small part of him wondered if his brother was right. Was he cut out for this? Is he supposed to be a warrior? He didn’t get to explore those thoughts as he was suddenly hit with a wave of overwhelming calm that made his eyelids droop.

“What?” He could only make out a lightning bolt as a few words were uttered.

“It’s ok, Anubimon will make sure his data never forms and I’ll ask Meikai to give him the same treatment he gave you.”

Then he fell asleep.

-

Rai walked down the halls of the hospital. He’s never really spent time in one since his incident with BeelStarmon and QueenChesesmon. Oh wait, Rai Kami isn’t supposed to know about the existence of digimon. It’s getting pretty hard to keep up this appearance. It already was a hard landing when Vulcanus plopped him down in the Human World. His canno-, no, his hands were messed up in the fall and he had to wear bandages for a long while. But it still was enough to gain his following and stardom in the boxing world.

It was only recently when Mari and Yuno made it over that he could fully heal his hands. He turned another corner where he bumped into a white haired boy.

“Oh back again are we?” Rai has seen this face many times over the past two days. “I don’t understand why you won’t let him see Shinya.”

The boy let out a grunt. “He’s still not strong enough, he would only be putting him and the Warrior of Earth in danger.”

Rai let out a laugh. “He seems to be strong enough to make his way here in between your rigours training.”

The boy rolled his eyes, which were a crystal blue. “Having a strong resolve means nothing if you have no power to back it up. He thinks he has control over the element of ice, but every mon knows that it is in reality _high_ level programming. He’s skills aren’t up to par for him to claim his protection over another."

Rai gave a sigh. "I'll never understand you Witchenly folks."

With that the boy walked away leaving Rai to continue his journey through the hospital. He passes the room where J.P, Izzy, and Joe are recovering from Shoku’s ‘ **Polyphony** ’. Rai had to give them props, not many digimon and much less humans came out the same after that attack. He peeked his head in and saw that J.P was the only one awake with Izzy and Joe resting on their own hospital beds.

“Hey J.P. How are you feeling?” Rai took a seat at J.P’s bedside.

“Oh hey Rai. I’m honestly not sure. My mind is very hazy but I think I’m starting to feel better.” J.P answered with a small smile. “Hey Rai, do you want to see a magic trick? Since I’ve been spending my time on bed rest I’ve been practicing my sleight of hand.”

Rai wasn’t in a rush, but he did want to check up on Shinya before he left the hospital. So he gave a shrug and pulled his chair closer to J.P.

“Sure why not.”

J.P gave a bright smile and pulled out a coin. He began to flip the coin through his fingers moving from his left to right quickly. The coin disappeared after two more rotations and J.P showed the back and front of his hands for Rai to marvel at the trick.

Rai gave J.P an applause for the small trick that didn’t seem too hard, but he didn’t want to dash J.P’s efforts.

“Where did the coin go?”

J.P gave another smile and reached behind Rai’s ear and pulled out the coin. Rai gave him the expected shocked expression.

“Wo-” Rai suddenly felt the cold metal of the coin pressed against his forehead. The force of the throw made his head fly back cause him to turn down his eyes to see J.P. He saw that J.P’s bright and friendly smile was gone, replaced with a serious expression. 

**_Shock._ **

Rai was sure the amount of electricity running through him should be enough to kill a regular human. Luckily he sorta, kinda is a master at the element. He didn’t feel any different but he was sure he was supposed to when he saw the shocked look J.P on his face.

Now in a reverse of their earlier situation J.P is the one shocked and Rai is the one giving the bright and friendly smile.

“Sorry, but those kinds of attacks don’t work on me. Sorry about what my brother did, but the family is working on that situation. But I hope you get better soon so we can have that boxing match.” Rai picked the coin from his forehead and lightly tossed it to J.P’s open palm. Rai got up leaving the room as he closed the door slightly and he let out a heavy sigh.

“These new Warriors are something else.” He thought to himself.

He continued to make his way toward Shinya’s room. Once he reached the room he knocked on the door and opened it with a loud creak.

“Rai?”

Oh looks like Shinya’s brother is with him today as well. Everytime Rai came to visit his brother was there watching over his little brother. It was clearly weighing down on the young man and it was clearly showing. Baggy eyes and messy hair were prominent on the boy's face. Shinya was awake for the first time since he was brought to the hospital. Rai raised his hand to say hello, but he quickly flew back against the wall.

‘Not again.’

“What’s wrong Shin-Shin, why am I being pinned down by a piece of the floor.” This wasn’t the craziest thing to happen to him in his lifetime.

“What are you doing here!?” Shinya all but screamed at Rai.

‘Someone is a little cranky’

“I came to see my frien-.” 

The restraint tightened but he didn’t really feel any pain. It would take a lot more than that.

“Shinya I know that it might be shocking seeing me-” Rai knew that the Mummymon that Lilithmon hired took on his face. He tried to reach out his other hand trying to placate but it too was pinned against the wall. It was a bit uncomfortable but again it didn’t hurt.

“Shocking to see you!? I spent _hours_ looking at your face, and quite frankly I’ve had enough of it. I had to look at someone I thought of as my friend while being tortured for hours. Do you know what it feels like to have your body being a play thing for a sadistic bastard who had all intentions to kill you? Always bringing me to the point of passing out then stopping as he got off on my screams?”

Rai saw the tears falling down his new found friends face and he didn’t like the sight. He could tell Takuya was beginning to become agitated at the retelling of his younger brother's experiences. So he made an executive decision to put a stop to their conversation. He easily broke free from the restraints and let the disguise drop just a little like he did when he first met Shinya. His aura quickly filled the room taking over the senses of both brothers.

The effect was immediate on Shinya seeing as he was still a bit weak.

“What?” Rai walked over to Shinya planting a hand on his head.

“It’s ok, Anubimon will make sure his data never forms and I’ll ask Meikai to give him the same treatment he gave you.”

Then Shinya fell asleep. Rai put back up the ‘disguise’ and the aura no longer filled the room returning it to its previous state.

“What the hell are you?” Rai locked eyes with a fiery gaze. It reminded him of Vulcanus when he got the idea for a new invention. Rai debated on keeping his cover for a second, before he remembered Yuno would literally kill him and have Meikai bring him back to life.

"Would you believe me if I said I was just a foreign boxer?"

He gave an awkward laugh.


	24. I'm Not Dead

Just a quick authors note.

 **I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON THIS STORY WHAT SO EVER**.

I did not anticipate the pulling ties of school and how it would affect this story. Im working on continuing the story and completing the Liltihmon arc atleast.

I wont leave you guys on a complete cliffhanger. Even though i technically did.

Please dont kill me.

But to be honest I dont know how long that will take me. Well seeing as i have to write this story why dont you guys drop some ideas, or story points you might want to see worked into the story and I'll pick the ones i like the most. Or I might do some one-shots in my Frozen Soil universe. Were most stories are Smoki centric. Cause that ship dosent have enough love.

Alright thats it for me. Again im sooooo sorry about the small hiatus and thank you fir those that waited and for those that are new and contunue to give kudos and read this story.


	25. IM BACK GUYS

I'm Rewriting this story guys from top to bottom. IM SO SORRY about this long wait but I'm back for good so be sure to check out the new story it is label The Story Done The Right Way REWRITE. So glad to have you guys on this journey with me again.


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